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Hugh. Miller's Works. 

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Krummaoher's Sv\ffe:-ir>g Sav'our, 

Banvard's American Histories. Tlie Aimwell Stories. 

Veweomb's Works. Tweedie's Works. Chambers's Works. Harris' Works, 

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Mrs. Knight's Life of Montgomery. ditto's History of Palestine. 

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Cruden's Condensed Concordance. Eadie's Analytical Concordance* 

The Psalmist : a Collection of Hymns. 

Valuable School Books. Works for Sabbath Schools. 

Memoir of Amos Lawrence. 

Poetical Works of Milton, Cowper, Scott. Elegant Miniature Volumes. 

Arvine's Cyclopaedia of Anecdotes. 

Ripley's Notes on Gospels, Acts, and Romans. 

Sprague's European Celebrities. Marsh's Camel and the Hallig. 

Roget's Thesaurus of English Words. 

Haekett's Notes on Acts. M'Whorter's Tahveh Christ. 

Siebold and Stannius's Comparative Anatomy. Marcou's Geological Map, "IT. a. 

Religious and Miscellaneous Works. 

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<S0ttfrr aittr patmlrt'ss IJublitations, 



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*fi 



THE 



PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE 



NEW TESTAMENT, 

CONSIDERED IN EIGHT LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 

ON 
BY 

THOMAS DEHANY V BERNARD, M.A., 

OF EXETER COLLEGE, AND RECTOR OF WALCOT. 
FROM THE 

SECOND LONDON EDITION, WITS IMPROVEMENTS. 



BOSTON: 

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59 WASHINGTON STREET. 

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GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 




STEREOTYPED ASD PRINTED BT 
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PREFATORY NOTE 

TO 

THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

The Bampton Lectures of Mr. Bernard on the Progress of Doc- 

. l trine in the New Testament, deserve unqualified commendation; 

for they are as nearly perfect both in substance and form as any 

~," i human production can well be made. The views which they 

express are fresh and convincing, and the language in which they 

are presented is clear as crystal, revealing every thought and 

- shade of thought with absolute distinctness. There is not, I 

believe, a dark or dull sentence in the volume. 

The argument awakens curiosity, satisfies reason, and strength- 
ens faith. There is constant progress from first to last, and the 
reader is made to see that every step in advance is safe, that he is 
moving steadily forward on solid ground. I have rarely perused 
a more attractive or instructive work, and I do not hesitate to 
pronounce it one of the best fruits of biblical study in modern 
times. No person can read it without having his interest in the 
New Testament and his knowledge of that wonderful book 
greatly increased. 

For the benefit of the general reader, the untranslated sen- 
tences of the author's edition have, in most cases, been translated, 
and the Greek itself placed as foot-notes. 

ALVAH HOVEY. 

Newton Theological Institution, May 1, 1867. 

\ 



EXTRACT 

FROM 

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 

^ OF THE LATE 

KEY. JOHN BAMPTON, 

CANON OF SALISBURY. 



. . . "I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the Chan- 
cellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford for- 
ever, to have and to hold all and singular the said Lands or Es- 
tates upon trust, and to the intents and purposes hereinafter men- 
tioned ; that is to say, I will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Oxford for the time being shall take and re- 
ceive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, 
reparations, and necessary deductions made) that he pay all the 
remainder to the endowment of Eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, 
to be established forever in the said University, and to be per- 
formed in the manner following : 

"I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter 

Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of Colleges 

only, and by no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing- 

House, between the hours of ten in the morning and two in the 

afternoon, to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year 

following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement 

ix 



X EXTRACT FEOM BAMPTO^'S WILL. 

of the last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third week in 
Act Term. 

"Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture 
Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following subjects 
— to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute all 
heretics and schismatics — upon the divine authority of the holy 
Scriptures — upon the authority of the writings of the primitive 
Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church — 
upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon 
the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the Chris- 
tian Faith, as comprehended in the Apostles 1 and Nicene Creeds. 

" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture 
Sermons shall always be printed, within two months after they 
are preached ; and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of 
the University, and one copy to the Head of every College, and 
one copy to the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one copy to be 
put into the Bodleian Library ; and the expense of printing them 
shall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or Estates given for 
establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the preacher shall 
not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are 
printed. 

" Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to 
preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken the 
degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities 
of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the same person shall never 
preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice." 



PREFACE. 



The title given to these Lectures may perhaps suggest differ- 
ent expectations as to their scope. It may appear to some to 
announce an intention of drawing from the New Testament 
materials for a historical inquiry into the growth of christian doc- 
trine, as it took place in the minds and under the hands of the 
Apostles. To others it may indicate a purpose of showing that 
the New Testament itself exhibits a scheme of progressive doc- 
trine, fashioned for permanent and universal use. The Lectures 
will be found to address themselves not to the first, but to the 
second of these attempts; not examining the New Testament 
collection in order to ascertain the chronological sequence of 
fact, but contemplating it, as it is, for the purpose of observing 
the actual sequence of thought. In so doing, we are concerned, 
not only with the component parts of the New Testament, but 
with the order in which they are placed. On this subject some 
prefatory words are needed, lest it should seem that the order 
here followed has been adopted merely because it comes natu- 
rally to us, as that with which we are familiar in our own Bibles. 

When this particular arrangement of books, which may be, 
and often have been, otherwise arranged, is treated as involving 
a course of progressive teaching, it may seem that an unwarrant- 
able stress is laid on an accidental order, which some may regard 
as little more than a habit of the printer and the binder. The 



Xll PREFACE. 

Lectures themselves ought to give the answer to this idea; for if 
the familiar order does exhibit a sequence of thought and a sus- 
tained advance of doctrine, then the several documents are in 
their right places, according to the highest kind of relation which 
they can bear to each other ; and if they had come into our hands 
variously and promiscuously arranged, it would yet be incumbent 
on one who would study them as a whole, to place them before 
him in the same, or nearly the same, order as that which they 
have actually assumed. 

It will be seen that the importance here ascribed to the order 
of the books is ascribed strongly to its chief divisions, and more 
faintly to its details. The four Gospels, the Book of Acts, the 
collection of Epistles, and the Apocalypse, are regarded as sev- 
erally exhibiting definite stages in the course of divine teaching, 
which have a natural fitness to succeed each other. Within these 
several divisions, the order of the four Gospels is treated as hav- 
ing an evident doctrinal significance (Lecture II.), and a certain 
measure of propriety and fitness is attributed to the relative po- 
sitions of the Pauline and the Catholic Epistles, and again in a 
less degree to that of the several Pauline Epistles themselves. 
(Lecture VI.) 

But while it belongs to the scope of the Lectures to point out 
reasons of internal fitness for a certain arrangement of the books 
of the New Testament, it does not enter into their design to dis- 
cuss the subject on its other side, and to treat of the custom of 
the Church in regard to the order of the canon. Yet this is a 
point on which, in some minds, inquiry will naturally arise, and 
to them some short account of the state of the case is due. 

In speaking of the custom of the Church, it must first be re- 
membered, that the New Testament was not given and received 



PREFACE. Xlll 

as one volume, but that it grew together by recognition and use. 
As the several books gradually coalesced into unity, it might be 
expected that there would be many varieties of arrangement, but 
that they would on the whole tend to assume their relative places, 
according to the law of internal fitness, rather than on any other 
principle which might exercise a transient influence, as, for in- 
stance, that of the relative dignity of the names of their authors, 
or that of their chronological production or recognition. In fact, 
this tendency shows itself at once, in the earliest period to which 
our inquiries are carried back by extant manuscripts, by cata- 
logues of the sacred books given by ancient writers, and by the 
habitual arrangement of the oldest versions. A short summary 
of the testimony derived from these sources is given in the first 
Note in the Appendix, by reference to two writers whose works 
have laid the Church under no common obligations.^) From 
that review of the case, it will be apparent that the order in 
which we now read the books of the New Testament is that 
which, on the whole, they have tended to assume ; and that the 
general internal arrangement, by which the entire collection 
forms for us a consecutive course of teaching, has been suffi- 
ciently recognized by the instinct, and fixed by the habit, of 
the Church. 

It remains to add a word of explanation as to the method in 
which the Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament has been 
here treated. Two ways of handling the subject may suggest 
themselves : one, that of exhibiting the gradual development of 
particular doctrines, through successive stages of the divine course 
of instruction ; the other, that of marking the characteristics and 
functions of those stages themselves as parts of a progressive 

(1) Numbers within parentheses, in the text, refer to Notes at the close of the 
volume ; those toithout parentheses, to foot-notes. 
2 



XIV PREFACE. 

scheme. The first method would be suited to the purpose of 
proving the fact of the progress of doctrine ; the second, to the 
purpose of showing that that fact involves the unity of a divine pla?i, 
and therefore the continuity of a divine authority. The latter 
purpose appeared the more likely to be practically useful, at least 
in the present clay. The advanced character of the doctrine in 
some books, as compared with others, is indeed sufficiently obvi- 
ous, and is not only admitted, but sometimes exaggerated into a 
supposed incongruity, or even inconsistency, in the views of the 
sacred writers. It was, then, not the reality of the progress of 
doctrine, but the true character of it, which seemed especially to 
solicit attention ; and in this point of view the subject is here 
considered. 

It was in fact originally suggested by the strong disposition, 
evinced by some eminent writers and preachers, to make a broad 
separation between the words of the Lord and the teaching of 
his Apostles, and to treat the definite statements of doctrine in 
the Epistles, rather as individual varieties of opinion on the reve- 
lation recorded in the Gospels, than as the form in which the 
Lord Jesus has perfected for us the one revelation of himself. 

Such a habit of thought must frustrate the provision which our 
great Teacher has made for enduing those that believe on his 
name with the vigor of a distinct and the repose of a settled 
faith. One of the most effectual safeguards against that danger 
will be found in an intelligent appreciation of the progressive 
plan on which God has taught us in his written Word : and if the 
view which is taken in these Lectures of the range of New Testa- 
ment teaching should, in any quarter and in any measure, con- 
tribute to that end, the prayer which has been associated with 
their preparation will have received its answer. In all our works 
the first and the last resort is the thought of that mercy which 



PREFACE. XV 

answers prayer. I have need to revert to it now. One who has 
taken up a subject connected with the Holy Word, under a strong 
sense of the usefulness which may belong to a due exposition of 
it, must feel a proportionate sorrow in the review of an inade- 
quate treatment. But it is enough. The desires and the regrets 
which attend our ministrations in the Lord's household are better 
uttered to God than to man. 

For one defect only it seems right to offer an excuse. I think 
that many of £he points, which in the Lectures are necessarily 
touched in a cursory manner, ought to have been more fully 
worked out and illustrated in Notes and References ; and it 
would certainly have been a satisfaction, in rapidly skirting the 
confines of so many fields of recent and laborious study, to bor- 
row contributions from writers by whom they have been thor- 
oughly explored. Only a few such additions have been made, 
as they occurred at the moment. I may be allowed to plead that 
the circumstances in which I was placed during the preparation 
of these Lectures have made it impossible for me to do more. 
Scarcely had this office been confided to me, before I was called 
to enter on the care of a parish of fifteen thousand souls, the 
affairs of which required immediate, and have compelled almost 
incessant attention. Of the effect of this pressure of duties it 
will not be proper for me to say more, than that it has caused the 
omission which is here acknowledged. 



ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. 



LECTUEE I. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
(PAGE 25.) 

St. John xvii. 8. 

Subject proposed. Its connection with the ministry of the word, and with the 
present tendencies of thought. 

I. Preliminary positions. 

1. There is divine teaching in the New Testament — doctrine given by the 

Father to the Son— by the Son to men. 

2. The divine teaching coincides in extent with the New Testament. Not to 
be restricted to words of the Lord in the flesh. Effect of such restric- 
tion. Forbidden by the Lord's words. Not to be extended through the 
whole Christian age. Progress of doctrine through all Church history — 
is a progress of apprehension by man, not of communication by God. No 
advance in divine teaching after the apostolic age ever admitted by the 
Church. 

3. The plan of the divine teaching is represented in the New Testament. In 

what sense it can be said that it exhibits a scheme of doctrine progres- 
sively developed. 

II. Outlines of the subject. 

1. Beality of the progress of doctrine. Visible in the Old Testament— in the 

New Testament. 

2. Stages in the progress of doctrine in the New Testament — marked by Gos- 

pels, Acts, Epistles, Apocalypse. 

3. Principles of the progress of doctrine in the New Testament — constituted 

by the relations of the doctrine (a) to its Author, (6) to the facts on which 

xvii 



XV1U CONTENTS. 

it is founded, (c) to the human mind, (d) of the several parts of the doc- 
trine to each other. 
Surrey of the New Testament as a progressive scheme. 



LECTURE II. 

THE GOSPELS. 

(PAG'E 53.) 

St. Mark i. 1. 

The beginning of the Gospel. The whole life and ministry of Christ on earth 
may be thus described — represented in the New Testament by the four Gospels. 

I. The Gospel Collection in its relation to the whole New Testa- 

ment forms the initiatory stage of a progressive plan. Fitted to this place 
and function, as presenting the person of Christ. Effect of the transparent 
style — of the fourfold repetition — of the fourfold variation. Communica- 
tion of personal knowledge of Jesus Christ is the beginning of the Gospel. 

II. The Gospel Collection in itself exhibits a progressive plan — (1) in the 

division of two distinct stages ; (%) in the character of the synoptic Gospels 
relatively to each other ; (3) in the character of St. John's Gospel relatively 
to the others. Unity of the whole representation — one Lord Jesus Christ. 
Unity and progress in the parts imply design in the whole — the Holy Ghost 
the designer. 
The Gospel Collection, in its general effect, prepares us for further teaching by 

creating the want, giving the pledge, depositing the material, and providing the 

safeguard. 

LECTURE UI. 

THE GOSPELS. 

(PAGE 77.) 

Heb. iii. 3. 

The Lord himself the first Teacher. His personal teaching in the Gospels is 
initiatory. 



CONTENTS. XIX 

I. 1. Includes the substance of all Christian doctrine. Its occasional character — 

but the occasions pre-ordained. Instances of pregnant sayings. 
2. Yet does not bear the character of finality, — a. in its form — b. in its method 
— c. in its substance — as moral teaching, full and open, as revelation of a 
mystery, reserved and anticipatory. The mystery being fundamental to 
the ethic, this reserve creates the need of further teaching. Instances in 
the doctrines of Forgiveness of sin and Acceptance in prayer. 

II. 1. Is a visibly progressive system. Comparison of the first and the last dis- 

courses, Matt, v.-vii. and John xiv.-xvii. 
2. Yet declares itself incomplete, and refers us to a subsequent stage of teach- 
ing. Transitional character of the last discourse. Plain assertions of 
incompleteness. Promises of things to be spoken after. The personal 
teachings of Christ to be completed in the dispensation of the Spirit. 
Saving purpose of the whole testimony, which only attains its end in those who 
11 have life through his name." 



LECTURE IV. 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 
(PAGE 102.) 

Acts i. 1-4. 

The Gospels and the Acts linked together as parts of one scheme — the one 

commencing, the other continuing, the teaching of Jesus Christ. Two points to 

be observed in the second stage of divine teaching in the New Testament. 

I. The Teacher is the same. Evidence of this. The Book of Acts is a record 

of the personal action of tbe Lord Jesus in the perfecting of his word and 

the formation of his Church. The method of this action: — 

1. Special interventions. Survey of these. Given at critical moments, and at 

the steps of progress — particularly in the history of St. Paul. Relations 
of the course of action to the course of doctrine, — as the pledge of its 
authority — as the means of its completion. Testimony of the Epistles 
to this personal action of the Lord in the progress of doctrine. St. Paul's 
statements as to the sources of his doctrine. 

2. Habitual guidance of the Apostles by the Holy Ghost. Nature of the gift 

at Pentecost — shown, from the promise, from the facts, and from the 



XX CONTENTS. 

testimony of the Apostles, to have involved the Gospel itself. Hence a 
divine authority attaches to the whole Apostolic teaching, in its interpre- 
tations and inferences as well as in its witness of facts. 
II. The method is changed. Reason for the change. The change is a sign 
and means of progress. The history of salvation being finished, must be 
followed by the interpretation of it, and by the exhibition of its effects in 
human consciousness. This is achieved by the change in the method of 
divine teaching, signified by the words, "He dwelleth with you and shall 
be in you." Action of the indwelling Spirit to be distinguished according 
to its purpose — in the founders of the Church to communicate truth — in 
the members of the Church to receive it. 



LECTUEE V. 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

(PAGE 127.) 

Acts v. 4 2. 

Further questions to be answered by the Book of Acts. Its purpose to answer 
them. Character and scheme of the Book. Its place and function in the evolu- 
tion of doctrine. 

I. It gives the general gharacter of the christian doctrine in its second 

stage. 

1. A Preaching of Christ. Comparison of the preaching recorded in the 

Gospels and that recorded in the Acts — the one of the kingdom, the other 
of the person. The difference in the preaching accounts for the difference 
in the effect. 

2. A preaching of the work of Christ, in its main features and their 

results — of his death as the source of forgiveness, of his resurrection as 
the source of life. Progress of doctrine in the summing up and exposi- 
tion of the past. 

II. It gives the course of events through which the doctrine was matured. 

Outlines of the history in this point of view. The doctrine cleared and 
formed in the course of this history, chiefly in respect of two principles : a. 
The Gospel is the substitute for the Law — Jewish theory of the Law — 
Judaizing attempts negatived and superseded; b. The Gospel is the heir 



CONTENTS. XXI 

of the Law — inheriting its ideas and its Scriptures. St. Paul's conflict for 
these positions. Largeness of the results deduced from them in the Epistles. 
Value of a divine summing up of the meaning and effects of the manifestation 
of Christ. 

LECTUKE VI. 

THE EPISTLES. 

{page 151.) 

Rom. i. 17. 

Marks of the continuity of doctrine, in passing from the Acts to the Epistles. 
The point at which the Book of Acts leaves us— it has presented the Gospel as a 
system, but, 1, in its external aspect — all the discourses in the Book are addressed 
to those who are not yet Christians ; 2, as a doctrine in outline — coextensive 
with the Apostles' Creed. 

Need of further divine teaching. The Epistles are the voice of the Spirit xoithin 
the Church to those who are within it — presenting the internal aspect of the 
Gospel, and filling up its outlines by perfecting the christian faith and educating 
the christian life. 

The Epistles are fitted for this work by their 

I. Form. The Epistolary form peculiar to the New Testament — indicates fel- 

lowship — addresses itself to actual life, and various conditions of mind. 

II. Method. One of reasoning, interpretation of Old Testament Scriptures, 

utterance of personal feelings and convictions — is a method of association 
rather than of authority, of education rather than of information, yet per- 
vaded by authority, and blended with direct revelation. 

III. Authorship. Chiefly that of St. Paul, who had not been with Jesus and 

was born out of due time. Inference, that these writings form a stage of 
doctrine in advance of that in the Gospels, as showing the results of the 
manifestation of Christ. The same kind of teaching in the Catholic Epistles, 
by four other authors, chosen representatives of the Twelve. 

IV. Relative characters. (1) St. Paul's Epistles, grouped and character- 

ized, form a body of doctrine. (2) Need and effect of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews. (3) The Catholic Epistles confirmatory and supplementary. 
The Epistles a provision for the exigencies of the christian life. The exigencies 
must be known — the provision must be used. 



XX11 CONTENTS. 

LECTURE VII. 

THE EPISTLES. 

{PAGE 177.) 

1 Cor. i. 30. 

The doctrine in the Epistles, as a stage in advance of the doctrine in the pre- 
ceding books, is distinguished by 

I. Its General Character — a doctrine of the life in Christ— shows the ful- 

filment, and gives the interpretation, of the promise, " At that day ye shall 
know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Discrimina- 
tion of the points in the promise. In the Epistles all things are " in Christ 
Jesus." Need of a correspondence with this character in our own habit of 
mind. 

II. Particular doctrines as affected by this general character. 

Examples. (1) Doctrine of salvation — in the Gospels — in the Epistles. 
Increased definiteness, especially as to the consciousness of atonement and 
redemption. (2) Doctrine of adoption — in the Gospels — in the Epistles. 
The form of it fuller — the ground of it clearer. A new sense of it from the 
gift of the Spirit. (3) Doctrine of worship — in the Gospels — in the Epistles. 
Plainer revelation of access by sacrifice — by mediation — in the Holy Ghost. 
(4) Ethical doctrine — in the Gospels — in the Epistles. Advanced to a 
higher point by the knowledge of higher relations, motives, and powers 
found " in Christ Jesus." 
Retrospect of the course of doctrine — its unity and progress. Our personal 
duty in regard to it. 

LECTURE VIII. 

THE APOCALYPSE. 

{PAGE 200.) 

Rev. xx i. 2. 

The Apocalypse fulfils the promise, " He shall show you things to come" — and 
completes the line of history and prophecy. Is related to the last discourse in St. 
Matthew, as the Epistles are to that in St. John. The Lord himself is still the 
revealer. 



CONTENTS. XX1U 

Connection between the progress of prophecy and the progress of doctrine. 
Doctrinal bearing of the book in 

I. The want which it supposes — concerned with the destinies of the body, 

the Church. The corporate life distinguished from the individual life in the 
Epistles. Contrast between the ideal character of the Church and the indi- 
cations of its actual history. In the later epistles the tokens and revela- 
tions of the future grow darker. Thus a want has been created which de- 
mands a further word of God. State of mind to which the Book is ad- 
dressed. 

II. The satisfaction which it provides — as being a doctrine of consum- 

mation. 

1. A doctrine of the Cause of the consummation. The personal salvation 

of the individual and the general salvation of the Church have the same 
ground, namely, the Atoning Sacrifice, — implied by " the Lamb," as the 
Apocalyptic tiume of Christ. 

2. A doctrine of the History of the consummation — showing the inner nature 

of events — by connecting things seen with things not seen — by present- 
ing the earth as the battle-field of spiritual powers. 

3. A doctrine of the Coming of the Lord— the announcement of this is the 

keynote of the Book — all else a part of this. In the Epistles tbe coming 
is connected chiefly with the personal life — here with the corporate life — 
as the close of the world's history. 

4. A doctrine of Victory — completes the teaching of the Epistles on the Vic- 

tory of the Lord— and of his people. 

5. A doctrine of Judgment. " The Prince of this world is judged." Judg- 

ment of the usurping Power — of the world — of nations — of persons. 

6. A doctrine of Restoration. There is to be a perfect humanity. Humanity 

only perfect in society. The city a type of society in its maturity. Fail- 
ure of earthly societies to realize the ideal. Realization promised in the 
Bible. Need of the final vision to complete the teaching of God. The 
Bible an account of the preparation of the City of God — by expectation, 
prophecy, and type — by the reconstitution of men's relations to God, and 
to each other — both effected by the Gospel. Other systems have despaired 
of human society. Completeness of the Bible in providing for the perfec- 
tion of man, in a corporate as well as a personal life. 
Final survey of the progressive teaching of the New Testament in its several 
stages, represented by the — Gospels — Acts — Epistles — Apocalypse. Fitness of 
this survey to increase the sense that the doctrine is not of the world — and the 
confidence that it is of God. 



THE 

PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE 

IN THE 

NEW TESTAMENT. 



LECTURE I. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

I HAVE GIVEN UNTO THEM THE WORDS WHICH THOU GAVEST ME. — 
St. John xvii. 8. 

On the truth of this sajing stands the whole fabric of 
creeds and doctrines. It is the ground of authority to the 
preacher, of assurance to the believer, of existence to the 
Church. It is the source from which the perpetual stream 
of Christian teaching flows. All our testimonies, instruc- 
tions, exhortations, derive their first origin and continuous 
power from the fact that the Father has given to the Son, 
the Son has given to his servants, the words of truth and 
life. 

I am now called, not so much to preach the words thus 
given to us, as to inquire concerning them. It is a sec- 
ondary and subsidiary ministr}^. 

Our first charge is, " Go stand and speak in the temple 
to the people all the words of this life." We go ; and our 
words not only meet the wants of conscience, but stir the 
activities of thought ; and a cloud of questions rises round 
us, which must be dissipated while it is gathering, but 
which will still gather while it is being dissipated. Thus 
the preaching of the words of life to the people is evermore 
3 25 



26 THE PROGEESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

attended by an incidental necessity for extensive and va- 
rious discussion. 

The institution of these lectures is a testimony to that 
necessity, and a testimony also to the relation which such 
discussion bears to the main object for which the Word 
was given. For if this pulpit is devoted on these occasions 
to the deliberate treatment of some particular question, 
that is only on account of the bearing which such questions 
may have on the work which the Church fulfils in testifying 
the Gospel of the grace of God. More especially is it 
fitting that one, who is habitually engaged in the work of 
preaching and teaching, should keep as near as he can to 
this ultimate practical aim. Therefore, invoking the guid- 
ance of God, I shall submit to j<ou some considerations on 
the progress of doctrine in the New Testament, a subject 
which on the one side touches the living ministry of the 
Church at its veiy heart, and on the other is specially 
affected by the present tendencies of sacred criticism. 

Into all our parishes and all our missions the thousands 
of evangelists, pastors, and teachers are sent forth with the 
Bible placed" in their hands, and with solemn charges to 
draw from its pages the Gospel which they preach. But 
when those pages are opened, they present, not the exposi- 
tion of a revelation completed, but the records of a revela- 
tion in progress. Its parts and features are seen, not as 
arranged after their development, but as arranging them- 
selves in the course of their development, and growing, 
through stages which can be marked, and by accessions 
which can be measured, into the perfect form which they 
attain at last. Thus the Bible includes within itself a 
world of anticipation and retrospection, of preparation and 
completion, whereby various and vital relations are consti- 



LECT. I. THE NEAV TESTAMENT. 27 

tuted between its several parts. These relations enter as 
really into the scheme of Scripture as do the several parts 
themselves ; and must be rightly understood and duly ap- 
preciated, if the doctrine, which the Book yields upon the 
whole, is to be firmly grasped by the student or fairly pre- 
sented by the preacher. 

In this way the subject of progressive teaching in Scrip- 
ture is implicated with the living ministry of the Church. 
How it is affected by the present tendencies of sacred criti- 
cism there is no need to explain, for it is known to all that 
the studies of our day are directed to a minute and la- 
borious examination of the internal characteristics of the 
books of Scripture, and more particularly of their mutual 
relations, and of the differences of doctrine both in amount 
and form which they exhibit on comparison with each 
other. Notwithstanding all reasons for anxiety, sometimes 
even for grief and indignation, which we may find in the 
actual handling of the subject, we have cause to be thank- 
ful that the progressive character of revelation is thus 
coming more distinctly before the mind of the Church. In 
regard to any subject the observation of successive stages 
of design must be expected ultimate^ to conduce to a more 
thorough comprehension of the thing designed, and will 
also naturally tend to place the observer in closer contact 
with the mind of the designer. So will it be with the writ- 
ten word. 

Only a part of the general subject is before us now. We 
shall be occupied with the last stage through which the 
revelation of God was perfected, as exhibited in the canoni- 
cal books of the New Testament. But though only a part 
of a larger subject, this is itself one of great extent and 
various aspect, and on this account some preliminary 



28 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. I. 

words are necessary, in order to fix the point of view from 
which it will be regarded. I shall therefore devote the 
chief part of this introductory lecture to secure for myself 
the following positions. 

1 . That by doctrine shall be here meant divine teaching, 
or truth as communicated by God. 

2. That the course of divine teaching under the Chris- 
tian dispensation shall be considered to coincide in extent 
with the New Testament Scriptures. 

3. That the relative character and actual order of the 
parts of the New Testament shall be taken, as adequately 
representing the progressive plan on which this course of 
divine teaching was perfected. 

When I have strengthened these positions by such ex- 
planations as time will allow, I will close this introduction 
of the subject, by pointing out that the progressive system 
of teaching in the New Testament is an obvious fact, that 
it is marked by distinct stages, and that it is determined by 
natural principles. 

I. 1. First, then, I assume that the doctrine here spoken 
of is divine teaching, and that by its progress is meant a 
systematic advance in its communication from God. 

That some doctrine contained in the New Testament must 
be thus characterized, we are assured by the assertion of 
the Lord Jesus in the text : " I have given unto them the 
words which thou gavest me." Words then have been given 
to men, which, not only in their original source, but in their 
intermediate channel, are absolutely and incontestably di- 
vine. Over and above these discoveries of the mind of God 
which are contained in the natural order of things, and 
which we may discern by an intuitive faculty or infer by a 
reasoning process, we have that, which, in the clearest, 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 29 

fullest, strougest sense, must be called the "word of God." 
Nay, he has not only given us a word; he has done more, 
he has given us words, 1 separate, articulate, definite com- 
munications, each as truly divine as is the whole word 
which they compose. Such words of God were spoken of 
in old time as "coming to" particular persons, who were 
to be the messengers of those words to others. The Proph- 
ets testified, when they spoke, that " the word of the Lord 
came to them ; " and the testimony was authenticated of 
God and accepted of men. But the communications made 
through them were only introductory. "In sundiy parts 
and in divers ways God having spoken of old to the Fathers 
in the Prophets, at the end of these days spake to us in his 
Son." Those to whom the word of God came were suc- 
ceeded by him who is himself the " Word of God." He 
became man, and stood forth as the one real and eternal 
Prophet, the medium of communication between the mind 
of God and the mind of man. Then he was in the world, 
but he "was in heaven," in the concourse of men but " in 
the bosom of his Father." His flesh was as a veil between 
the two worlds, and he who dwelt in it read on the one side 
the secrets of the Most Holy, and on the other presented 
them to the apprehensions of mankiud. On the one side he 
received, on the other he gave. He showed to the world the 
works which he had seen with his Father ; he spoke to the 
world the words which he had heard with his Father ; and 
in closing his pergonal teaching in the flesh, he lifted up his 
eyes to heaven and said, "I have given unto them the 
words which thou gavest me." Imagination itself can go 
no farther. If we asked for assurance that men had really 

1 pr'niara, 



30 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

received the words of God, it would be impossible to con- 
ceive a higher authority, a more plain assertion, or a more 
unqualified statement. On this point I need say no more. 
My only purpose in touching it has been to refresh in your 
minds the remembrance, that the doctrine about which we 
inquire is, in some part of it at least, truly and incontesta- 
bly divine. 

2. More perhaps needs to be said in order to justify the 
next step which I would take, in the assumption that the 
course of divine teaching coincides in extent with the Scrip- 
tures of the New Testament. Have I the right to extend 
the course of divine teaching so far? If so, have I the right 
to refuse to extend it farther ? At first sight the text might 
suggest that the character of doctrine, which has been just 
asserted, should be limited to the words spoken by the lips of 
the Lord Jesus when on earth. If we pass beyond this, and 
include words spoken by the lips of men, we ma}?- seem com- 
pelled to extend our thoughts to a progress of doctrine car- 
ried on to the end of time. In neither of these cases will 
the course of the divine communication of Christian truth 
coincide with the extent of the New Testament. In the 
one case it will be comprised in the Gospels alone, which 
leave us some of their most peculiar doctrines only in short 
summaries or pregnant germs ; in the other case it may be 
prolonged through an indefinite series of accessions, which 
will always leave the Church in doubt, as to what the faith 
delivered to it is, and still more in doubt as to what it may 
hereafter turn out to be. 

What then are the words to which the description in the 
text applies ? or rather, within what limits shall we seek 
them? 

Undoubtedly the Lord speaks of all the words which he 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 31 

had already uttered to those , disciples as their teacher in 
the days of his flesh. But is the saying true only of those 
words? Is it to be restricted to that stage of teaching 
which had then reached its conclusion, and of which at the 
time the assertion might seem to be made? Or is it also 
true of other words ? words for instance which he gave after 
he was risen? or, again, words wliich he gave after he was 
glorified ? 

To those who would study the evolution of doctrine in 
the New Testament this question is of vital importance, for 
if, after we have passed the first stage of teaching, the au- 
thority which we recognized there is withdrawn, our treat- 
ment of the subsequent teaching must be conducted in an 
altered spirit and on other principles. Having bowed in 
silence before the Divine Teacher, we shall recover our free- 
dom of opinion when we are left with his followers. Only 
at first shall we tread securely on the rock : we must then 
look well to our steps, and be free to choose our path among 
the irregularities and uncertainties of a more shifting soil ; 
for we shall pass from words which the Son of God gave to 
men, to the expansions of those words and the deductions 
from them which the men who first received them have 
given to us. Our study of the progress of doctrine within 
the limits of the New Testament would thus be entirely 
changed in its character, as we passed from the Gospels to 
the subsequent books. Only in the first stage would the 
progress of doctrine bear the meaning of the progress of its 
communication by God. In the second stage it could but 
signify the progress of its apprehension by men. The Acts 
and Epistles would thus form only the first chapter of the 
history of the Church, separated from its subsequent chap- 
ters by a much narrower interval than that which marks 



32 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

them off from the Gospels which precede them. They wo'uld 
in fact be simply specimens of human apprehensions of 
divine truth ; specimens of singular value, because produced 
under peculiar advantages, but yet, like any other indi- 
vidual apprehensions, mollified by the personal character 
and historical position of those who formed them. They 
would therefore be liable^ to such deductions on these ac- 
counts as historical criticism might suggest, and would re- 
main rather as warrants for various explications by other 
minds and in other ages, than as fixed .canons of the truth 
forever. 

I ask, then, whether the giving of the words of God was 
completed when the text was uttered, or whether there was 
a distinct part of the process yet to come ? 

The discourse in which the saying occurs has supplied the 
answer. Its distinctive character is that of transition, 
closing the past but opening the future, representing a later 
stage of teaching as the predestined completion of the 
earlier, and cementing both into one, by asserting for both 
the same source, and diffusing over both the same authority. 
This function in the progress of divine teaching, which be- 
longs to the discourse in the 14th, loth, and 16th chapters 
of St. John, must come more distinctly into view at a later 
stage of our inquiry. It is now sufficient to refer to it in 
passing, as an evidence that the very words, of which the 
text specifically and indubitably speaks, include the asser- 
tion of the same divine gift and authority for other teach- 
ing which was yet to come. 

Thus we stand on the declaration of the giver of the word 
himself, when we consider the progress of Christian doc- 
trine in its communication from God as extending, not only 
over one stage in which it was delivered b}- the Lord in the 



Lect. T. the new testament. 33 

flesh, but through a second stage in which it was delivered 
by the same Lord through the Spirit. It might indeed have 
seemed natural, at the point where the voice of Jesus 
ceases to draw the line which should terminate the words 
Which were given by the Father to the Son, and by the Son 
were given to men, a line of broad demarcation, separating 
those words from all others whatever. But that very voice 
forbade the act, and admonished us that, when it should 
seem to have ceased, it must yet be recognized as carrying 
on the course of communications which were not then com- 
plete. I now say no more on this important point, because 
a clear understanding upon it ought to be one of the chief 
results of the inquiry which lies before me. 

But a second question is waiting for me now. If I see 
that the proposal to restrict the divine authority to the com- 
munications of the Lord's own lips has been negatived by 
himself, I am left to extend that authority to communica- 
tions from the lips of men. Then where am I to stop ? Am 
I any longer within the limits of the New Testament ? I 
have looked forth on the ocean. Am I, or am I not, actu- 
ally launched upon it? I am compelled to turn towards the 
vast and confusing prospect, in order to mark the limits 
within which I claim the right to remain. 

Now if the second part of the New Testament simply re- 
hearsed to us certain definite revelations, which the writers 
alleged that they had received, no difficulty would exist. 
Their testimonv to these would be on the same footing (or 
nearly so) with the testimony of the Evangelists as to the 
discourses of our Lord. But this is not their method. We 
have the revealed truth presented to us in the Epistles, not 
only as a communication from God, but also as an appre- 
hension by man. The great transition from the one stage 



34 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

to the other is exhibited before onr e3^es as already effected. 
We have the gospel as it existed in the mind of Peter and 
of Paul, of James and of John. It is thus presented to us 
in combination with the processes of human thought and 
the variations of human feelings, in association with pecu- 
liarities of individual character, and in the course of its 
more perfect elaboration through the exigencies of events 
and controversies. 

But is not this account of the second part of the New 
Testament also the account of the whole subsequent history 
of doctrine in the world, that is, of Church history, in its 
essential and inward character ? Certainly it is so ; and 
therefore the Acts and the Epistles stand to the ecclesiasti- 
cal historian as the first chapters of his work, for there he 
already finds the aspects which the revealed truth bears to 
human minds and assumes in human hands, and the manner 
in which its parts and proportions come to be distinctly ex- 
hibited through the agency of men and the instrumentality 
of facts. And this is a process which goes on through de- 
scending ages, and in which every generation bears its part. 
It has gained accessions from all those varieties of the hu- 
man mind which have been placed in contact with revealed 
truth, from the idiosyncracies of persons, of nations, of 
ages, from Fathers and Councils, from controversies and 
heresies, from Hellenist, Alexandrian, and Eoman forms of 
thought, from the mind of the East and the mind of the 
West, from corruptions and reformations of religion, from 
Italy and England, from Germany and Geneva, from au- 
thority and inquiiy, from Church and Dissent. These words 
and others like them represent the varj T ing measures of ap- 
prehension, and the vaiying kinds of expression, which the 
Gospel revelation has found among men. The "Develop- 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 35 

ments of doctrine " (to use a word which some time since 
was very familiar to many of us) — the developments of 
doctrine thus originated were the joint product of the re- 
vealed truth and the condition of the mind which received 
it. The revealed truth was one, but the conditions of the 
human mind are infinitely various, and hence an endless 
variety in the developments themselves. — a variety which 
sometimes melts into a higher harmony, but more often jars 
on our ears in irreconcilable discord. 

I am not here concerned with the degrees in which differ- 
ent developments have represented or perverted truth, and 
in which they have more conspicuously exhibited the ele- 
ment of the divine truth or that of the human infirmity. I 
would only observe that through all this confusion there is 
in some sense a progress of doctrine. Even by misappre- 
hensions and perversions the relations of the Word to the 
human mind are more perfectly disclosed. In partial sys- 
tems of religion those parts of the entire scheme which they 
have more particularly adopted often come to be seen under 
a stronger light. But especially it is evident that certain 
great features of truth emerge from periods of conflict and 
the driving mists of controversy, and swell upon the sight 
with outlines more defined and a power more recognized 
than had seemed to belong to them before. The names of 
Athanasius, Augustine, and Luther, recall in a moment 
some of the most obvious examples of this fact, in regard to 
the doctrines of the Nature of Christ, of Original Sin, and 
of Justification by Faith. 

There were periods then at which these doctrines stood 
forth with a vividness, precision, and force, which gave 
them as it were a new place in the apprehensions of men, 
affecting of course by their increased definiteness and ex- 



36 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. I. 

pansion the proportions of the whole body of truth. These 
however are only prominent instances of a general and 
continuous fact. Every age, ever3 T Church, every sect, 
every controversy, in some way or other contributes some- 
thing to the working out, the testing, or the illustrating of 
some part of the revelation of God. Our English mind has 
borne its part, and the religious movements of our own day 
will deposit some residuum of materials for future thought 
and knowledge. Our missionary efforts will, in this respect 
also, have results of their own, and Christianity in India 
or in China, when it has in some degree lost its English 
type, and entered into full relations with the peculiar minds 
of those peculiar races, will perhaps make as distinct addi- 
tions to the histoiy of doctri::e, as we recognize in passing 
from the theology of the Eastern to that of the Western 
Church. The history upon the whole both has been and 
will be a long disclosure of the perverse tendencies and in- 
firm capacities of man. Yet a special providence over the 
Church and the Living Spirit in it has been proved as well 
as promised : and he who looks back upon the tortuous 
and agitated course of thought, perceives that the truth is 
not only preserved, but in some sense advanced, the defini- 
tions of it becoming more exact, the construction of it more 
systematic, and the deductions from it more numerous. 

Thus the history of the apprehension of Christian truth 
by man, which commences within the New Testament, is 
continued in the history of the Church to the end of time ; 
and still, while it is continued, it is in some sort a history 
of progress, and one in which the Spirit of God mingles, 
and which the providence of God moulds. 

What then is it which draws the line of separation 
between the apostolic period and all the subsequent periods 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 37 

of this history? It is this — That the apostolic period is 
not only a part of the history of the apprehension of truth by 
man : it is also a part of the history of the communication 
of truth by God. It is the first stage of the one, and the 
last stage of the other. The aspect which the Gospel bears 
in the writings of the Apostles is a communication from 
God of what it really is, a revelation of what he intended 
that it should be in the minds of men forever. This char- 
acter of the apostolic writings has, without variation of 
testimony, been acknowledged by the Church from the 
beginning ; but this acknowledgment has been confined to 
these writings, and has never been extended to subsequent 
expositions or decrees. Councils and doctors have claimed 
a right to be heard, only as asserters and witnesses of apos- 
tolic teaching. No later communications from heaven are 
supposed or alleged. What has been handed down, — 
what is collected out of the writings of the Apostles — is 
the professed authority for all definitions and decrees ; and 
all reference to (what may appear to be) other authority is 
based upon the fact, asserted or implied, that in the quar- 
ters appealed to there was reason to recognize some special 
connection with the apostolic teaching. This fact, more- 
over, comes out most clearly at those moments in which 
(what might be called) an advance of doctrine is seen most 
evidently to take place. If the doctrine of the Nature of 
Christ shows a new distinctness and firmness of outline 
after Nice and Constantinople, yet that form of the doc- 
trine professes to be, and when examined proves to be, 
only a formal definition of the original truth. Nothing 
new has been imported into it ; only fresh verbal barriers 
have excluded importations which were really new. If the 
doctrine of Justification by Faith seems, at the era of the 

4 



38 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

Reformation, like a new apparition on the scene, yet it is 
advanced, and is received, only as the old Pauline doctrine 
reasserting its forgotten claims. 

Even palpable innovations have supported their preten- 
sions by the plea of an imaginary tradition, descending 
from the days when it was confessed that the communica- 
tions of God had been completed. Our own days have 
seen fresh evidence of the tenacity with which the Romish 
Church holds to this theory, while making that last addition 
to the articles of the faith which seemed to imply that it 
was abandoned. Then, when the pretence of a tradition 
appeared to have finally given way under the ever accumu- 
lating mass of novelties, minds accustomed to the logic of 
facts began to cast about for some other theory, which 
should admit of being reconciled with them. The exposi- 
tion of such a theoiy began in this pulpit, and was com- 
pleted in the communion into which its author speedily 
passed. It was a theory which virtually claimed for the 
Church the power to create new doctrine, instead of a mere 
authority to determine what was old. But the claim could 
not secure adoption, though it had been boldly acted upon, 
and seemed necessary to the controversial position of 
Rome. The settled sense of Christendom as to the revela- 
tion of the truth was not to be violated. Newly-" defined " 
doctrines were still to be pronounced true and necessary 
on the ground that they had been held by the Apostles, 
though no evidence of that fact survived, and that they had 
been handed down by tradition, though no trace of the tradi- 
tion could be found. The gift thus ascribed to the " Infallible 
Authority " was not an inspiration to know the truth of new 
doctrines, but a revelation of the fact that they were old. 
The new position has been in fact abandoned by those who 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 39 

offered, but have not been suffered to hold it (2) ; and we 
are still able to say, that only in transient moments of en- 
thusiasm, and by some insignificant and eccentric sects, 
has there been any definite allegation, that doctrinal com- 
munications from God have been received since the last 
Apostle died. 

The sum of what has been said is this. (First) , There 
are words (definite doctrinal communications) of which it 
is said by the Lord Jesus, " The words which thou gavest 
me I have given them." (Secondly), These words are not 
only those which he spake with his lips in the days of his 
flesh ; they include other words, afterwards given through 
men in the Spirit, during a period of time which is repre- 
sented to us by the books of the New Testament. (Thirdly) , 
Those words were finished in that period, and have received 
no subsequent additions. The description in the text not 
only cannot be shown to belong, but has never been sup- 
posed to belong, to any words which have been spoken 
since. 

On these three points the judgment of the Church has 
been all but universal and unchanging. In speaking there- 
fore of progress of doctrine in the New Testament, I speak 
of a course of communication from God which reaches its 
completion within those limits, constituting a perfected 
scheme of divine teaching, open to new elucidations and 
deductions, but not to the addition of new materials. 

3. The books of the New Testament are the form into 
which this divine teaching has been thrown for permanent 
and universal purposes, and by the will of God they con- 
stitute the only representation of it for all men and for- 
ever. I have now to add that they give the representation, 



40 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRIXE. LeCT. I. 

not only of its substance, but also of the plan on which it 
was progressively matured. 

It must here be remarked that there are two ways in which 
we may exhibit the progressive development of any S}^stem 
of things, whether it be a scheme of religious doctrine, a 
science, a political constitution, or anything else which has 
completed itself by degrees — one of which may be charac- 
terized as the historical, the other as the constructive method. 
In the one case we inquire after the exact succession of 
events through which the result was reached ; in the other 
we discriminate the stages of advance in the result itself. 
The representation of progress made in the one case would 
be regulated simply by the order of fact, while that which 
would be produced in the other would be rather governed 
by the order of thought. Now if we consider the New Tes- 
tament as representing a progressive development of doc- 
trine, it is so in the latter sense more than in the former. 
It is rather a constructive than a simply historical represen- 
tation. For instance, in the development of the manifesta- 
tation of Christ in the flesh, the words and deeds recorded 
b}' St. John must be restored, on the historic principle, to 
their proper places in the actual order of events ; on the 
constructive principle, the} 7- properly coalesce into a sepa- 
rate whole, as bringing out a view of that manifestation, 
which is an advance in the order of thought upon the view 
which the s^ynoptic Gospels present. So in a historic rep- 
resentation of the formation of apostolical doctrine we 
should have to trace the successive steps and occasions of 
its advance, to secure the exact chronological arrangement 
of St. Paul's Epistles, and to insert them in their several 
places in the narrative of his labors. On the other hand, 
the purposes of a constructive representation may be better 






LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 41 

served by keeping the records of the external activity of the 
Church separate from its directly doctrinal writings, or by 
placing those doctrinal writings in a different order from 
that of their chronological production. Thus the New Tes- 
tament, as a whole, presents to us a course of teaching on 
the constructive rather than on the historic principle ; and 
it is in this sense that I propose to take the book as an ade- 
quate representation, not only of the substance of the divine 
teaching, but of the plan and order of its progress. 

It may be said, that there is a difference between the prog- 
ress of doctrine as it actually was during the time which 
the New Testament covers, and the representation of it 
which we have in those particular writings. Yes ! and 
there would be a difference between the actual course of 
some important enterprise, — say of a military campaign 
for instance, — and the abbreviated narrative, the selected 
documents, and the well-considered arrangement, by which 
its conductor might make the plan and execution of it clear 
to others. In such a case the man who read would have a 
more perfect understanding of the mind of the actor and the 
author than the man who saw ; he would have the whole 
course of things mapped out for him on the true principles 
of order. Such is the position of every reader of the New 
Testament, who accounts that the Lord, by whom the his- 
torical development of truth was guided, is also the virtual 
author of that representation of it which lies before him. 

We have not, then, to make out a chart from materials 
given to us, but to study one which is already made. Trac- 
ing the course of doctrine as it is seen to advance through 
those pages, we shall have no need to reconstruct for our- 
selves the actual order in which the truth was historically 
developed. Whatever were the measures and gradations 

4* 



42 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

by which it was opened out to the Church at first, here are 
the measures and gradations by which it is opened out to 
the Church forever. Indeed, the plan on which the Lord 
perfected his promised teaching was one which could only 
be seen in retrospect. Conducted through the medium of 
persons and events, and by the use of local occasions, the 
method of procedure must at the time have very imperfectly 
disclosed its real system and coherence. Parts of the 
truth, for instance, were being cleared and settled in some 
Churches, which perhaps were scarcely inquired for in oth- 
ers, yet the decision was of the Lord, and destined for the 
whole body. A transient occasion demanded the interfer- 
ence of a particular Apostle, and through his sentence was 
given some fundamental and eternal principle. Among all 
that was done and written and said, in that scene of in- 
tense activity and incessant movement which the apostolic 
writings open to us, it would have been hard indeed at the 
time to follow with steady eye the great lines of advancing 
doctrine, and to single out the acts and documents which 
would adequately represent the results secured. Only 
when these results had been firmly deposited in the Church, 
could the successive contributions of the divine teaching be 
recognized, and their relative order discerned. To exhibit 
this plan of things there was need, not of a mass of acci- 
dental records, but of a body of records selected and ar- 
ranged. It might seem that we had no right to attribute 
such a character as this to a collection of writings which 
are upon the face of them independent and occasional. 
Yet it is certain that, when taken as a whole, this is its 
effect, and that it makes upon the mind the impression of 
unity and design. He who reads through the Koran 
(albeit the work of a single author) finds himself oppressed, 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 43 

as by a shapeless mass of accidental accretions. He who 
reads through the New Testament finds himself educated 
as by an orderly scheme of advancing doctrine. The sev- 
eral books seem to have grown into their places as compo- 
nent parts of an organic whole ; and " the New Testament 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ " lies before us as an 
account of a perfected revelation, and a course of divine 
teaching designed and prepared by one presiding mind. 

II. Having now accomplished the preliminary steps, I 
will close this introductory Lecture by pointing out the 
reality, of the progress of which I speak, the stages through 
which it is perfected, and the principles by which it is regu- 
lated. 

1. The reality of this progress is very visible ; and more 
especially so when we regard the New Testament as the 
last stage of that progressive teaching which is carried on 
through the Scriptures as a whole. Glance from the first 
words to the last, "In the beginning God created the heav- 
ens and the earth " — " Even so, come, Lord Jesus." How 
much lies between these two ! The one the first rudiment 
of revelation addressed to the earliest and simplest con- 
sciousness of man, that, namely, which comes to him through 
his senses, the consciousness of the material world which 
lies in its grandeur round him : the other the last cry from 
within, the voice of the heart of man, such as the interven- 
ing teaching has made it ; the expression of the definite 
faith which has been found, and of the certain hope which 
has been left by the whole revelation of God. The course 
of teaching which carries us from the one to the other is 
progressive throughout, but with different rates of progress 
in the two stages which divide it. In the Old Testament 
the progress is protracted, interrupted, often languid, some- 



44 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

times so dubious as to seem like retrogression. Accessions 
take place in sundry parts, in divers manners, at times un- 
der disguises of earthly forms, seeming to suggest mistakes, 
which have to be themselves corrected. Yet through it all 
the doctrine grows, and the revelation draws nearer to the 
great disclosure. Then there is entire suspension. We 
turn the vacant page which represents the silence of 400 
years, — and we are in the New Testament. 

Now again there is progress, but rapid and unbroken. 
Our steps before were centuries ; now they are but years. 
From the manger of Bethlehem on earth to the city of God 
coming down from heaven the great scheme of things 
unrolls before us, without a check, without a break. It is in 
harmony with processes of nature and with human feelings, 
that preparations should be slowly matured, but that final 
results should rapidly unfold. When life becomes intense 
it can no more endure delays, or develop itself by languid 
progression. The root was long before it showed the token 
of its presence, the stem and leaves grew slowly, but yes- 
terday the bud emerged from its sheath, and to-day it is 
expanded in the flower. A swift course of events, the period 
of one human life, a few contemporary writers have given 
us all the gospel that we need to know under our present 
dispensation, all that we shall ever know till Jesus comes 
again. 

But there is, as has been observed, a plan of progress 
though its course is swift, and I would take note first of its 
stages and then of its principles. 

2. Its stages I do not now examine ; but just mark them 
off as they catch the eye. First we are conducted through 
the manifestation of Christ in the flesh : we see and hear 
and learn to know the living person, who is at once the 



Le CT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 45 

source and the subject of all the doctrine of which we speak. 
He is presented as the source, of doctrine, delivering with 
his own lips the first Christian instructions, the first 
preaching of a present gospel and the pregnant principles 
of truth. He is presented as the subject of doctrine, for 
it is himself that he offers to us by word and deed as the 
object of our faith, and the events which we see accom- 
plished in his earthly history are the predestined substance 
of all subsequent instruction. But within this stage of 
learning there is not only continuous development by the 
course of events and accumulation of facts, but at a certain 
point a great change occurs, which is visible to every eye. 
It is the point where we pass from the synoptic Gospels 
and come under the teaching of St. John. Now we rise 
to heaven, and go back to " the beginning," and set forth 
from "the bosom of the Father." Now we are taught to 
recognize the glory of the person of Christ, with a con- 
sciousness not changed but more distinct, with acknowl- 
edgments not new but more articulate. In the former Gos- 
pels we have walked with him in the common paths of life ; 
in this we seem to have joined him on "the hoty mount." 
It is almost like the change which was witnessed by the 
three disciples, who had walked conversing by his side, and 
then suddenly saw his countenance altered and his raiment 
white and glistering. Such is the effect upon our minds, 
not merely of the last Evangelist's own expressions, but of 
that selection of words and acts which it was his commis- 
sion to make and to leave. 

We close the Gospels and open the books which follow. 
We have passed a great landmark and are farther on our 
way ; yet the line of doctrine which we pursue seems to 
have sunk to a lower level, for we cease to be taught by 



46 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

the lips of the Incarnate Word, and are remitted to the 
discourses and writings of men. Is this progress? He 
assured us that it would be ; and we find that it is. 

We are under the dispensation of the Spirit ; and in the 
book of Acts are borne, by seeming accident but by invis-" 
ible guidance, straight along that line of fact and of 
thought in which we are to find the full developments of 
the truth which was given in the Gospels. 

In matter of doctrine the book of Acts is our introduc- 
tion to the Epistles. Here if the authority of the teacher 
seems lowered from what it was in the Gospels, the fulness 
of the doctrine is visibly increased. Its more mysterious 
parts are seen expanded and defined. Statements which 
might seem of doubtful meaning in the former stage have 
found a fixed interpretation in the latter. Suggestions of 
thought in the one have become habits of thought in the 
other. What were onry facts there have become doctrines 
here ; and truths, which just gleamed from a parable, or 
startled us in some sudden saying, are now deliberately 
expanded into manifold and recognized relations with the 
feelings and necessities of man. The nature and conse- 
quences of the work of Christ on earth, the offices for men 
which he now fulfils in heaven, the living relations which 
he bears to his people in the Spirit, the discoveries of his 
majesty and communication of his glory which are ready to 
be revealed in the last time, all these are seen in the apos- 
tolic writings, sometimes asserted as perspicuous doctrine, 
more often blending and kindling together in the inward 
life of the Spirit, giving the form to the character and the 
motives to the life. 

Yet a further change takes place as we reach the close of 
the Scriptures. This inward and personal life in the Spirit 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 47 

is not all. There is a kingdom of Christ, which has its 
form, its history, its destinies. In the later Epistles we 
see a constituted society, and hear the sounds of a coming 
conflict : the Church appears on the defensive, and the 
steps of invisible powers are moving round her. The pro- 
phetic book which follows transports us into the unseen 
world, and opens the temple of God in heaven, and shows 
us the connection of the history of the Church with things 
above and things below ; and guides through the dim con- 
fusion of the conflict to the last victory of the Lamb, 
leaving us at last among the full effects of redemption, in 
a new heaven and a new earth, and in a holy society and 
city of God. 

3. Having cast our eye along the stages of advance, we 
next inquire after the principles by which it is governed ; 
and we find them in the relations which the doctrine bears 
to its author, which it bears to the facts on which it is 
founded, which it bears to the human mind to which it is 
addressed, and which its component parts bear to each 
other. 

a. The relation of the doctrine to its author is the ground 
of its continuous unit} T , and unless there be unity we have 
no right to speak of progress : for succession is of many, 
but progress is of one. The unity of the New Testament 
doctrine lies in this, that it is the teaching of one mind, the 
mind of Christ. The security for this is given to us in two 
ways : first by the fact that there is no part of the later 
and larger doctrine which has not its germs and principles 
in the words which he spake with his own lips in the days 
of his flesh. It is provided that all which is to be spoken 
after shall find support and proof from his own pregnant and 
forecasting sayings. Secondly, it is made clear by his own 



48 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

promises beforehand, by facts which evidence his personal 
administration, and by the distinct assertions of the men 
whom he employs, that, when his own voice has ceased on 
earth, it is nevertheless he who teaches still. The testimo- 
nies of this are scattered along our whole path, till we 
come to the last vision itself, in which he personally reap- 
pears, " to show unto his servants the Revelation which 
God gave unto him," renewing thereby for the last time the 
assertion of our text, " I have given unto them the words 
which thou gavest me." 

b. The relation of the doctrine to the facts on which it 
is founded is a principle by which a certain measure of prog- 
ress is necessarily constituted. Christian doctrine does 
not ground itself on speculation. It begins from the 
region and the testimony of the senses. Its materials are 
facts, and it is itself the interpretation and application of 
them. It is therefore reasonable that the facts should be 
completed, before they are clearly interpreted and fully 
applied. Jesus must have died and risen again before the 
doctrine concerning his death and resurrection can be 
brought to light. Not till the Son of Man is glorified can 
we expect to arrive at a stage of doctrine which shall give 
all the meaning and the virtue of facts which till then were 
not completed. Up to that time we are in the midst of a 
history of which his own sa} T ing is true, " What I do thou 
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." 

c. The relation of the doctrine to the human mind does 
also plainly necessitate a particular kind of progress in the 
method of its communication. The doctrine was not 
meant to be an opinion but a power : " The words that I 
speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." It 
therefore had to pass from the form of a divine announce- 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 49 

ment into the form of a human experience. It had to es- 
tablish its own connection with the world of human 
thoughts and feelings. Once spoken by the mouth of the 
Lord, it might perhaps have been left to make this transition 
according to the natural laws of the human mind. But the 
transition in itself was too great, the consequences of error 
in the first stage of it would be too momentous, for the 
Author and Finisher of our faith to leave the Church to her 
ordinary resources at so critical a moment. He would give 
a divine certainty and authority to the first human appre- 
hensions of his truth. He would make it sure that he had 
himself conducted those first experiences and applications 
of the word, by which future experiences and applications 
might be guided and tried forever. Therefore the word 
spoken to men by the voice of Jesus changed into a word 
spoken in men by his Spirit, creating thus a kind of teach- 
ing which carried his word into more intimate connection 
with human thought and more varied application to human 
life. 

d. Lastly, the relation of the several parts of doctrine to 
each other would call for a certain orderly course of devel- 
opment. There is a natural fitness that the knowledge of 
the Lord himself should precede the knowledge of his work, 
and that we should wait on his ministry on earth before we 
apprehend his ministry in heaven, and that we should see 
that we are reconciled by his death before we understand 
how we are saved by his life ; embracing the meritorious 
means before we expatiate among the glorious issues. It 
is reasonable that an acquaintance with Christ himself, and 
a knowledge of his work and grace, should be given first, 
and that, from the source thus provided, the rules and mo- 
tives of conduct should afterwards be elicited. It is right 



50 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. I. 

that we should be fully aud clearly instructed in the things 
of our present dispensation, and in the life of faith through 
which we are passing now, and in the kingdom of an inward 
and spiritual grace, and then that we should be subse- 
quently informed, and more dimly and briefly too, of the 
great history of the unseen conflict with which we are more 
remotely concerned, and of its final issues when the former 
things will have passed away and God shall make all things 
new. These various parts of the doctrine, though in some 
degree commingling and interfused, do yet on the whole 
sort themselves out in Gospels, Epistles, and Apocatypse. 

Lift up now your eyes on this monument of a distant age 
which you call the New Testament. Behold these remains 
of the original literature of a busy Jewish sect ; these occa- 
sional writings of its leaders, emanating from different hands 
and gathered from different localities. They are delivered 
to you collected and arranged, though by means which 3-ou 
cannot ascertain. They are before 3'ou now, not as acci- 
dentally collected writings, but as one book ; a design com- 
pleted, a body organized, and pervaded by one inward life. 
The several parts grow out of and into each other with 
mutual support, correlative functions, and an orderty devel- 
opment. It is a " whole bocty fitly joined together and com- 
pacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the 
effectual working in the measure of every part, making in- 
crease of the body to the building itself up " in truth. 

It begins with the person of Christ, and the facts of his 
manifestation in the flesh, and the words which he gave 
from his Father ; and accustoms us by degrees to behold 
his glory, and to discern the drift of his teaching and to 
expect the consequences of his work. It passes on to his 
body the Church, and opens the dispensation of his Spirit, 



LECT. I. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 51 

and carries us into the life of his people, yea down into the 
secret places of their hearts ; and there translates the an- 
nouncements of God into the experiences of man, and discov- 
ers a conversation in heaven and a life which is hid with 
Christ in God. It works out practical applications, and is 
careful in the details of duty, and provides for difficulties 
and perplexities, and suggests the order of Churches, and 
throws up barriers against the wiles of the devil. It shows 
us things to come, the course of the spiritual conflict, and 
the close of this transient scene, and the coming of the 
Lord, and the resurrection of the dead, and the eternal 
judgment, and the new creation, and the life everlasting. 

Thus it is furnished for all emergencies and prepared for 
perpetual use. It dominates the restless course of thought, 
and is ever being interpreted by experience and events. It 
is an authority which survives when others perish, and a 
light which waxes when others wane. By it, as the instru- 
ment of God for the education of men, nations are human- 
ized and churches sanctified. And 3 T et more real and last- 
ing than these are the ultimate results which it secures. 
An elect nation is being gathered from among us, and an 
eternal Church prepared, which shall supplant all transient 
and provisional societies in that day for which the whole 
creation waits. Here is the final scope of the Book of our 
covenant, in its combination with that older volume which 
it continues and completes. 

Then is it not to each of us a matter of the deepest per- 
sonal concern, that the truth which it teaches and the spirit 
which it breathes should have entered into his own soul ; 
and that he should thus become a partaker in the life which 
it reveals, an example of the character which it demands, 
and an inheritor of the portion which it promises? But 



52 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. I. 

this cannot be, unless he yield to the Written Word the 
confidence which it claims. Oh ! deal worthily, deal trust- 
fully with such a guide as this ! Venture your souls on the 
words of which the Lord has said, " I have given unto them 
the words which thou gavest me." Receive the message, 
receive the form in which it is left to you, " not as the word 
of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God," and then 
you will find that it " effectually worketh also in them that 
believe" ; for he who " obeys from the heart that form of 
doctrine into which he is delivered," finds that a course of 
progressive teaching is opened in his own soul, to which the 
Holy Scripture will never cease to minister, and which 
the Holy Spirit will never cease to guide. 






LECTURE II. 

THE GOSPELS. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD.— 

St. Mark i. 1. 

With reverential and affectionate interest we look back 
to the beginnings of those things which possess our alle- 
giance as established powers, or are daily enjoyed as familiar 
blessings. The thought that they had a beginning, that 
there was once a time when they were not, gives a fresh- 
ness to the feelings with which we regard them ; while the 
comparison of the state of commencement with the state of 
perfection brings with it a natural pleasure, in marking the 
tendencies and the tokens of all that has happened since. 
No words can open the heart to these impressions so 
powerfully as those which have just been uttered. The 
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
places us at the opening of the mystery of godliness, of the 
salvation of the world, of the glory which fills the heavens, 
and of the kingdom which endures forever. 

The expression with which St. Mark opens his narrative 
implies that the Gospel is then an established fact and a 
completed scheme, and that he here returns to the moment 
when the fact began to assert itself before the world as 
already present, and the scheme to show itself as in actual 
progress. The beginning of the Gospel (according to this 
Evangelist) is not found at the birth of Jesus, when the 
communications of Heaven were made but to few, and died 



54 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IT. 

suddenly into silence ; but from the time when John did 
baptize in the wilderness, and when Jesus began to show 
himself, and "the word of the beginning of Christ" was 
publicly proclaimed, never to be again suspended till it 
should have become the word of a completed Gospel. It 
is indeed the habit of the Apostles to represent the publica- 
tion of the Gospel as historically commencing at the same 
point of time. " The word," says St. Peter, "which God 
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus 
Christ, — that word began from Galilee, after the baptism 
which John preached ; x and St. Paul, in presenting to the 
Jews "the word of this salvation," dates its proclamation 
from the time " when John had first preached before his 
coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of 
Israel." 2 

But the expression which is used in the text of the open- 
ing of the public life of Jesus may also be truly applied to 
the whole period of that life. The Gospel, considered as 
fact, began from the Incarnation, and was completed at the 
Resurrection ; but the Gospel, considered as doctrine, 
began from the first preaching of Jesus, and was completed 
in the dispensation of the Spirit. When the Lord quitted 
the world, he left the material of the Gospel already per- 
fect, but the exposition of the Gospel only begun ; and in 
the subsequent consciousness of his disciples, the period of 
the commencement of the word and the period of its per- 
fection must have been strongly discriminated from each 
other. 

When living in the perfect dispensation of the Spirit, 
and going to others in the fulness of the blessing of the 

*Acts x. 36, 37. 2 Ibid. xii. 24. 



Lect - IX - THE GOSPELS. 55 

Gospel of Christ, they would remember how that Gospel 
dawned gradually on their minds during the few years in 
which its facts had been passing before their eyes, how im- 
perfectly they had understood those facts, how inadequately 
they had apprehended the teaching by which the facts were 
accompanied, how true it was that what their Lord did 
they knew not then, but that they were to know it after- 
wards. To them that whole period of time must have 
seemed but an initiatory stage, a " beginning of the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ the Son of God." 

And so it was. The Gospel which Jesus preached was 
a Gospel which in its main particulars had yet to be ful- 
filled, and which could not be fully opened till it had been 
fulfilled. While the facts were still incomplete, the doc- 
trine was yet in its commencement ; and we have on this 
account the right to describe b}^ the words of the text, not 
only the first steps but the ivhole of the manifestation of 
Christ in the flesh. The beginning of the Gospel is a name 
which in one sense comprehends " all that Jesus began both 
to do and teach until the day when he was taken up." 

To us this stage of the divine teaching is represented by 
the writings of the four Evangelists ; and I would now con- 
sider this collection, first relatively, as the beginning of the 
orderly development of the Christian doctrine in the whole 
New Testament, and then separately, as a course of teach- 
ing which bears within its own limits a certain character 
of systematic advance. 

Two such topics, included in a single Lecture, can 
receive little more than a suggestive treatment ; but I pray 
that this may not occasion any defect of that careful rever- 
ence with which the fourfold Gospel must be ever touched 



56* THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE . LECT. II. 

"by those who see in it the very ark of the covenant, where 
the cherubim of glory overshadow the mercy-seat. 

I. First, then, we have to observe how the Gospel collec- 
tion is fitted to its place and fulfils its function, as the com- 
mencement of the Christian doctrine in the New Testament. 

Now the Christian doctrine is a doctrine concerning facts 
which have occurred and a person who has been manifested 
within the sphere of human observation. The foundations 
of all that is to be known of the word of life are laid in 
" that which was seen with the eyes, and heard with the 
ears, and handled with the hands" of men. Then it is 
necessaiy for every learner that, before all inferences or ap- 
plications, the facts themselves as mere phenomena should 
first be rendered in the clearest light. Hence our elemen- 
taiy lessons are narratives of the simplest form. A plain 
report of words and deeds, eas}^ and inartificial in the ex- 
treme, in which the most stupendous events elicit no articu- 
late expression of feeling, without appearance of plan or 
system, with scarcely a comment or reflection, and in which 
a word of explanation almost startles us — such is the char- 
acter of the three first of those writings which form the 
ground and contain the material of all subsequent Christian 
doctrine. No literary fact is more remarkable than that 
men, knowing what these writers knew, and feeling what 
they felt, should have given us chronicles so plain and 
calm. They have nothing to say as from themselves. Their 
narratives place us without preface, and keep us without 
comment, among external scenes, in full view of facts, and 
in contact with the living person whom they teach us to 
know. The style of simple recital, unclouded and scarcely 
colored by any perceptible contribution from the mind of 
the writers, gives us the scenes, the facts, and the person, 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 57 

as seen in the clearest light and through the most transpa- 
rent atmosphere. Who can fail to recognize a divine pro- 
vision for placing the disciples of all future ages as nearly 
as possible in th'e position of those who had been personally- 
present at "the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
the Son of God?" 

The importance, in the whole course of instruction, of 
first fixing on the mind both the objective reality of the facts 
and the living portrait of the person, is further intimated by 
the fourfold repetition of the history. Four times does the 
Lord walk before us in the glory of grace and truth, and, 
whatever correspondences or variations the Gospels may 
exhibit in other parts of their narratives, four times are the 
great facts of the death and resurrection of Christ rehearsed 
to us in the minuteness of circumstantial detail. We do 
not go forward to further disclosures, till the historical facts 
have been insured to us by testimony upon testimony, and 
the portrait has grown familiar to us by line upon line. 

Far on in the holy books, when the scriptural structure is 
nearly perfected, our eyes are turned back to the ground of 
visible, audible, tangible realities from which we started. 

" That which was from the beginning, which we have 
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of 
life (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and 
bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which 
was with the Father and was manifested to us), that which 
we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also 
may have fellowship with us." 1 

Yes, it is true. We have fellowship with those that 

* 1 John i. 1-3. 



58 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. II. 

speak, not only in their spiritual relations with their Lord 
(which they fully understood only after he was gone) , but 
in their remembrances of him in that earlier time when he 
was yet with them. Their witness is effectual for this end. 
For us also it is all real. He dwelt among us. We beheld 
his glory. We caught the gracious words that proceeded 
out of his mouth. So things went with him. So he looked 
and moved and spoke. So he wrought and suffered and 
died. We have stood by the cross of Jesus. We have 
entered the empty sepulchre. We have seen him alive after 
his passion. He has shown us his hands and his feet. We 
have been led out as far as to Bethan}^, have seen the hands 
lifted up to bless, and watched the ascending form. 

Open these pages where we will, the sense of reality re- 
vives within us. We feel afresh that we have not followed 
cunningly devised fables, have not loved an idea, or trusted 
in an abstraction. We know in whom we have believed, 
and feel that our Redeemer is our friend. We are sol- 
emnized as in a holy sanctuaiy, and secure as in a familiar 
home. We have escaped from doubt and debate, and no 
longer criticise or reason. We have recovered the mind 
of little children. We sit at the feet of Jesus : and the 
faith which came into his presence languid and disconcerted, 
departs invigorated and refreshed. 

Brethren, let me urge upon you the habitual study of the 
holy Gospels for this revival of the reality and simplicity 
of faith. Let me urge it more especially upon those who 
converse in the region of abstract ideas, whether they fre- 
quent the ordered paths of s} T stematic divinity, or wander 
in the free excursions of speculative thought. Dear as the 
Gospel stories are to the simple peasant, they are yet more 
necessary to the student and the divine ; for there are influ- 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 59 

ences in abstract thought and in dogmatic discussion which 
will drain the soul of life unless fitting antidotes be used : 
and there is no antidote so effectual, as is found in a con- 
tinual return to those scenes of historic fact in. which the 
word of God has given us our first lessons in Christ. 

This necessity for habitual converse with the evangelical 
narratives is a sufficient proof of the wisdom which assigned 
them the place and the space which they actually fill, and 
especially which ordained that the picture of our Lord's 
earthly life should be given to us not in one Gospel, but in 
four. 

I suppose we all feel how different would have been the 
effect of possessing one " Life of Christ," however full and 
S3'Stematic. We spend more time, and (if I may use the 
expression) feel more at home, in the four successive cham- 
bers than we should have clone in one long gallery ; and the 
impression of all that is there shown to us sinks deeper into 
the heart, from the repetition of many passages of the story 
under slightly varying lights and in different relative con- 
nections. Lively attention, minute observation, careful 
comparison, and inquiry which is never fully satisfied, are 
awakened at every step by that singular combination of 
resemblances and differences ; and the mind is thus engaged 
to dwell longer on the scenes, conversing among them in a 
more animated spirit, and with an interest which is per- 
petually refreshed. We know the immense expenditure of 
labor in our own day on the comparative characteristics of 
the Gospels, and the manifold attempts to harmonize or to 
reconstruct them, to ascertain the point of view of the 
writers, and to account for the variations in their selection 
and position of incidents and in the turn which they give to 
discourses. Whatever be the spirit in which such attempts 



60 THE PEOGEESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. II. 

are made, they at least afford an incidental witness to the 
care which divine wisdom has taken to detain and occupy 
our minds at the outset in those scenes in which alone we 
can learn to know Jesus Christ himself. 

It is plain that the four histories are modified by their 
own instinctive principles of selection and arrangement, 
which do not indeed announce themselves, and almost elude 
our attempts to ascertain them, but yet result in giving 
four discriminated aspects of their common subject, as the 
Royal Lawgiver, the Mighty Worker, the Friend of Man, 
and the Son of God — four aspects, but one portrait ; for if 
the attitude and the accessories vary, the features and the 
expression are the same. (3) 

Who does not perceive the immense assistance hereby 
given to us for receiving the knowledge of Christ? One 
representation, however full, would still have suggested 
the thought, "This is the impression made upon a single 
mind. Who can say what part of it is due to the 
idiosyncrasies of the witness ? If we had the impressions 
of another mind, perhaps we should have a different image." 
As it is, we derive the impression from four different quar- 
ters, and the image is still the same. It is represented 
from four different points of view ; but, however repre- 
sented, it is the same Jesus. The conception is one, and 
its unity attests its truth. We feel that we see him as he 
was. No human being that ever trod the earth has left 
behind a representation of himself more clear and living, 
and more certain in its truthfulness, than is that which we 
possess of the Prophet of Nazareth in Galilee. 

From time to time some fresh portrait may appear. 
Some adventurous imagination, charmed and yet perplexed 
by the Gospel story, may attempt to reconstruct it in ac- 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 61 

cordauce with the spirit of the world. Unable to receive 
as real the sole example of sinless humanity, it may intro- 
duce into the picture touches of the error and infirmity 
which are not there ; and may mistake the awful gleams of 
the indwelling Godhead for the glimmer of an enthusiasm 
which deludes and is deluded. The world may read the 
bold romance, and half commend the creation of fancy. 
But the creations of fancy perish as they rise, and the 
Jesus of the Gospels remains ; not only as a perfect ideal, 
but as a vivid reality, a representation which appears, after 
every fresh attempt to change it, more glorious in majesty 
and beauty> and more conspicuous also for truthfulness 
and life. 

In placing the statement of the person of Christ as the 
first work of the Gospel histories, and as the beginning of 
the Gospel itself, I speak in accordance with the spirit of 
those books and of the whole ensuing system of doctrine. 
Jesus Christ created the Gospel by his work ;• he preaches 
the Gospel by his words ; but he is the Gospel in himself. 
The expression is but the condensation of a hundred 
passages of Scripture which declare him to be that, which, 
iu more timid but less adequate language, we might say 
that he wrought > or that he taught, or that he gave. " I am 
the resurrection and the life." 1 He "is our peace," 2 he 
" is our life," 3 he is " the hope of glory." 4 " He of God ' 
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifica- 
tion, and redemption." 5 and they who are saved "are 
made partakers of Christ," 6 not merely of his gifts, 
whether they be gifts of grace or glory. Is it not indeed 



iJohnxi. 25. 


2Eph. li. 4. 


3 Col. iii. 4. 


4 Col. i. 27. 




5 1 Cor. i. 30. 


6 Heb. iii. 14 



62 THE PEOGKESS OF DOCTEINE. LECT. IT. 

the distinguishing feature of the Christian system, that it 
places the foundation of salvation in living relations with a 
living person, rather than in the adoption of opinions or of 
habits? that under it the believer is, not the man who 
maintains the doctrine of the Trinity, or holds "justifica- 
tion by faith," but the man who has " come to " Christ and 
" abides in" him? 

These are the Lord's own words : the}' are fundamental 
words in relation to all that is added afterwards : they are, 
in matter of doctrine, the beginning of the Gospel. The 
writings of the Evangelists do not present to us a scheme 
of doctrine as to the nature of Christ or as to the work 
which he does. They present to us the Lord Jesus himself, 
as he showed himself to men in order to win their confi- 
dence and fix their trust. Men learned to know him and 
to trust him before they fully understood who he was and 
what he did. 

The faith which, in the Gospel stories, we see asked for 
and given, secured and educated, is a faith that fastens 
itself on a living Saviour, though it can yet but little com- 
prehend the method or even the nature of the salvation. 
Thus the New Testament, in giving us these narratives for 
our first lessons in Christian faith, teaches us that the 
essential and original nature of that faith lies, not in ac- 
ceptance of truths which are revealed, but in confidence in 
a person who is manifested. " He that cometh to me," 
" He that believeth on me," is the Lord's own account of 
the child of the new covenant who is the fit recipient of ad- 
vancing doctrine. Faith, as seen in the Gospels, results 
not in the first place from the miracles which justify and 
sustain it, but from the personal impression which appeals 
to the conscience and the spirit in man. The first disciples 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 63 

believed before a miracle had been shown. It was imputed 
as a fault, "Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not 
believe :" * and it was a condescension to inferior spiritual 
sensibilities when the simple words "Believe me" 2 were 
changed to " Or else believe me for the very works' sake." 
As it was with those disciples, so also is it with ourselves. 
The evidential works have their own most important, most 
necessary office : but the Lord himself is his own evidence, 
and secures our confidence, love, and adoration, by what 
he is more than what he does. 

We pass on from the Gospel histories into a dispensation 
of invisible offices and spiritual relations, and we carry 
with us the personal knowledge of him by whom these 
offices and relations are sustained. It is this which secures 
that they should not be to us a s} 7 stem of ideas and abstrac- 
tions, of words and names. The Mediator between God 
and man, the High Priest in the spiritual temple, the King 
on the unseen throne, is this same Jesus who went in and 
out among us, whom we have seen sitting in the house at 
Bethany, or by the well at Sychem, receiving sinners, 
preaching to the poor, comforting his friends, and suffering 
little children to come to him. With an acqaintance 
already formed, a confidence already secured, and a love 
already awakened, we can pass with a prepared heart to 
more abstruse revelations of the same Lord, when he is 
presented as the righteousness of the sinful in the Epistle 
to the Romans, as the predestined source of life in the 
Epistle to the Ephesians, as the sacrifice and priest of the 
new covenant in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Having first 

1 John iv. 4:8. 2 Ibid. xiv. 11. 



64 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. II. 

known himself, we are ready for the Spirit to take of the 
things which are his and show them to us. 

II. Our reflections hitherto have turned upon the relation 
which the Gospel collection bears to the whole New Testa- 
ment, and we have looked at it as the beginning of a course 
of doctrine extending through the books which follow. It 
is now farther to be noted, that its oivn separate work is 
■itself fulfilled on an apparent plan of progressive develop- 
ment, which is constituted by the relative characters of the 
Gospels viewed in the order which they have habitually 
assumed. 

(1.) The collection is divided into two parts by a line of 
demarcation perceptible to every eye and recognized in 
every age ; the first three Gospels forming the one part and 
the fourth Gospel the other. The former naturally pre- 
cedes, and in its effect prepares us for the latter. "We are 
to learn the great lesson of the manifestation of Christ : 
and here, as in most other subjects, the order of fact is not 
the order of knowledge. In the order of fact the glory of 
the divine nature precedes the phenomena of the earthly 
manifestation ; but in the order of knowledge the reverse 
is true. Events occurring in time, a place in human 
histoiy, and the external aspect of a life, must supply the 
antecedent conditions for the higher disclosures. Thus the 
triple Gospel, which educates us among scenes of earth, 
prepares us for that which follows. Our minds are led 
along that very course of thought over which they would 
have moved if we had been eye-witnesses of the manifesta- 
tion of Christ, in that we are familiarized with its ordinary 
aspect aud most frequent characteristics, before our 
thoughts are riveted on those peculiar passages in which 
the revelation of glory is most concentrated, and which 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 65 

serve to interpret all that we had before felt to be im- 
plied. 

(2.) Again, if the synoptic Gospels are taken by them- 
selves, we observe, even within the limits of this division, 
certain orderly steps of advance. Each of these narratives 
has its own prevailing character, whereby it makes its 
proper contribution to the complete portrait of the Lord : 
each also has its own historical associations, whereby it 
represents a separate stage in the presentation of Christ 
to the world. Both the internal characters and the his- 
torical associations of the several Gospels have been fully 
wrought out by recent writers, and are now generally 
understood. Yet they must be shortly noticed here, for 
the due elucidation of the statement that the books in com- 
bination constitute a progressive course. 

The record of St. Matthew, ever recognized as the 
Hebrew Gospel, is the true commencement of the New 
Testament, showing how it grows out of the Old, and pre- 
senting the manifestation of the Son of God not as a de- 
tached phenomenon, but as the predestined completion of 
the long course of historic dispensations. It is the Book 
of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the 
son of Abraham. It founds itself on the ideas of the old 
covenant. It refers at every step, especially in its earlier 
chapters, to the former Scriptures, noting how that was 
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. It is a history 
of fulfilment, presenting the Lord as the fulfiller of all 
righteousness, the fulfiller of the Law and the Prophets, 
not come to destroy, but to fulfil. It sets him forth as a 
King and Lawgiver in that kingdom of heaven for which 
a birthplace and a home had been prepared in Israel : and 
thus corresponds to that period in the historical course of 

6* 



66 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. II. 

events when the word was preached to none but to the 
Jews only. (4) 

The Gospel of St. Mark is traditionally connected with 
St. Peter, who first opened the door of Faith to Gentiles, 
and has the appearance of being addressed to such a class 
of converts as it was given to that Apostle to gather, men 
like the devout soldiers of Caesarea, in whom the Eoman 
habit of mind was colored by contact with Judaism. It is 
the Gospel of action, rapid, vigorous, vivid. Entering at 
once on the Lord's official and public career, it bears us on 
from one mighty deed to another with a peculiar swiftness 
of movement, and yet with the life of picturesque detail. 
Power over the visible and invisible worlds, especially as 
shown in the casting out of devils, is the prominent char- 
acteristic of the picture. St. Peter's saying to Cornelius 
has been well noticed as a fit motto for this Gospel, " God 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with 
power, who went about doing good and healing all those 
who were oppressed of the devil." In relation to the ex- 
pansion of the word from its first home in Jewry to its 
ultimate prevalence in the whole earth, this Gospel occupies 
an intermediate position between those of St. Matthew and 
St. Luke. Its representation of the Lord is disengaged 
from those close connections with Jewish life and thought 
which the first Gospel is studious to exhibit, while it is 
wanting in that breadth of human sympathy and special 
fitness for the Gentile mind at large which we recognize in 
the treatise of St. Luke. 

This latter Gospel intimates its character in this respect 
by a genealogy which presents to us not the son of Abra- 
ham, but the son of Adam; and it carries out the intima- 
tion by special notice of our Lord's familiar intercourse 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 67 

with human life, his tender sympathies with human feelings, 
his large compassion for human woes. The preface, ad- 
dressed to a Gentile convert, indicating the position of the 
writer in regard to the facts which he will relate, and speak- 
ing in the language of classical composition, shows us at 
the outset that we have passed from Jewish associations to 
a stage in the histor} T of the world when its purpose of 
expansion has been proved, and its character of universality 
established. The whole tone of this Gospel constitutes it 
pre-eminently a Gospel for the Gentiles, specially adapted 
to a Greek mind, then, in some sense, the mind of the world. 
Its internal character thus accords with its historical posi- 
tion, as the Gospel of St. Paul, written by his close com- 
panion, and circulated, we cannot doubt, in the Churches 
which he founded. 

As the book of Acts shows us three stages in the outward 
progress of the Gospel, first within the bounds of Judaism, 
then in the work of St. Peter, spreading beyond those limits 
in the Roman direction, and finally in the ministry of St. 
Paul, delivered' freely and fully to the world ; so do the 
sjmoptic Gospels, as they stand in the canon, correspond 
with a singular fitness to those three periods. We are going 
forward as we pass through them, and are completing the 
representation of Christ, not by mere repetition or fortu- 
itous variation in our point of view, but in a certain orderly 
sequence, corresponding to that in which the knowledge of 
him was historically opened to the world. The evangelical 
narratives are the proper monuments of a Gospel, which 
first asserted itself as the true form of Judaism and the 
legitimate consummation of the old covenant, and then 
unfolded its relations with the whole race of mankind, and 
passed into the keeping of a Catholic Church. 



68 THE PKOGEESS OF DOCTKINE. LECT. II. 

(3.) If in traversing the synoptic Gospels we march in the 
line of a historical advance, it is still more plain that we 
do so when we pass to the teaching of St. John. 

The Gospel of Christ had no sooner completed the con- 
flicts through which it established its relations to Judaism 
and to the world, than it entered on those profound and 
subtile, those various and protracted controversies, which 
turned on the person of Christ. This was the natural course 
of events, whether we regard the tendencies of human 
thought, the wiles of the devil, or the government of God. 
If the revelation of Christ himself (as distinguished from 
what he taught and what he wrought) is the foundation of 
the whole Gospel, it would be first to explore this mystery 
that the activities and subtleties of thought would address 
themselves ; it would be first to destroj 7 this mj^stery that 
the assaults of the enemy would be directed ; it would be 
first in securing this mystery that the divine guidance of 
the Church would be made manifest. One Apostle, the first 
and the last of the " glorious company," was chosen as the 
chief instrument for settling human thought, defeating the 
wiles of the devil, and certifying the witness of God. There 
was but one moment in which the conditions for such a pro- 
duction could co-exist. It must be after a speculative the- 
osoplry had begun to form its language and manifest its 
aberrations. Yet it must be while the voice of an eye-wit- 
ness could still be lifted up, to tell what e} T es had seen, and 
ears had heard, and hands had handled of the Word of 
Life ; so that the clearest intuitions of the divinity of Jesus 
might be forever blended with the plainest testimony of the 
senses concerning him. Such a moment was secured by the 
providence which ordained that John should live till the 
first heresies had shaped themselves. The disciple who 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 69 

first came to Jesus, who followed him most closely, who lay- 
in his bosom, who stood by his cross, who believed when 
others were confounded, who saw with more penetrating eye 
the glory which they all beheld, was reserved to complete 
the written statement of the person of Christ, in a record 
which has been designated from ancient days as M the Gos- 
pel according to the Spirit." 

As the other Gospels respectively make prominent the 
ideas of law, of power, and of grace, so does this present 
the glory of Christ. " We beheld his gloiy, the glory as 
of the Only-begotten of the Father." 1 All the disciples 
beheld it, but there was one whose pure, lofty, and con- 
templative spirit fitted him to be the best recipient, and 
therefore the best exponent, of the sublime disclosure. To 
him, therefore, the office was assigned, and his Gospel is its 
fulfilment. He begins, not like his predecessors from an 
earthly starting-point, from the birth of the son of Adam 
or the son of Abraham, or the opening of the human minis- 
try, but in the depths of unmeasured eternity and the re- 
cesses of the nature of God ; and then, bringing the First- 
begotten into the world, traces with adoring eye the course 
of word and deed by which he manifested forth his glory, 
and at last delivers his record to others, " that they may 
believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing 
they may have life through his name." 2 

We have now seen that in the three synoptic Gospels the 
representation of Christ, as he lived and conversed amongst 
men, is carried on by three successive stages, from its first 
Jewish aspect and fundamental connection with the old 
covenant to its most catholic character and adaptation to 

i John i. U. 2 ibid. xx . 3i. 



70 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. II. 

the Gentile mind ; and that these steps correspond to and 
are connected with the historical stages of advance, by 
which the Word of God passed from its first home to its 
destined sphere of influence. We have seen that in the 
fourth Gospel we rise to a more distinct apprehension of 
the spiritual mystery involved in the picture which has been 
presented ; and, further, that this advance also is connected 
with historical conditions, subsequent in time to those un- 
der which the preceding books originated. The course of 
teaching thus produced is according to that principle which 
places the earthly things as the introduction to the heavenly, 
and keeps everything in "its own order, first that which is 
natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual." 

And }~et these stages of progress are constituted only by 
differences of degree. There is nothing expanded in one 
book which has not been asserted in another. Take what- 
ever may seem to 3*011 the distinguishing idea of an3 r one of 
them, and you find a strong expression of it in all the oth- 
ers. The Judaism of St. Matthew reaches out to the call- 
ing of the Gentiles ; and the catholic spirit of St. Luke falls 
back upon his Jewish origin. St. John, in exhibiting the 
divine nature of Christ, exhibits only what the others have 
everywhere implied and frequently affirmed. " The Johan- 
nean conception of Christ," as it has been termed by some, 
who would place it in opposition to preceding representa- 
tions, is in fact their explication and confirmation. In the 
former Gospels we behold the Son of God, proclaimed by 
angels, confessed hy devils, acknowledged by the voice of 
the Father ; with authority and power commanding the 
visible and invisible worlds, and at the central moment of 
the histoiy transfigured on the holy mount before the e3 T e- 
witnesses of his majest}-. The first word in the Temple 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 71 

declares to his earthly parent his conscious relation to his 
Father ; the last charge to the Apostles founds the Church 
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; 
while, in the intervening period, some voice of self-revela- 
tion more deep than usual is from time to time suffered to 
fall upon our ears ; like that which so many commentators 
have noticed as a kind of anticipation of the language of 
St. John, " All things are delivered to me of my Father ; 
and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, nei- 
ther knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son will reveal him." x 

On the other hand, it is in the record of St. John that we 
read words which, if found in another Gospel, would have 
been eagerly urged as antagonistic to "the Johannean con- 
ception." We can imagine what use would then have been 
made of the argument (John x. 34-36) founded on the text, 
"I have said ye are gods," or of the assertions, "The 
words which ye hear are not mine," and " The Father is 
greater than I." Now, standing in connection with the 
claim to the incommunicable Name, and with the state- 
ments, " All things that the Father hath are mine," and " I 
and the Father are one," that argument and those assertions 
cannot be mistaken ; but they serve to confirm the unity of 
that revelation of God manifest in the flesh, of which one 
aspect is more fully exhibited in one part, and the other 
aspect in the other part of the Evangelical record. (5) 

Asserting then the peculiar development which the last 
Gospel gives to the doctrine of the person of Christ, we 
also assert that there is no variation from the original con- 
ception. The exposition is continuous ; the picture is one. 

1 Matt. xi. 27, alid Luke x. 22. 



72 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRIXE. LECT. II. 

From the beginning of St. Matthew to the end of St. John 
it is one Lord Jesus Christ, as really the Son of Man in 
the last Gospel as in the first, as really the Son of God 
in the first Gospel as in the last. Only we find, in passing 
under the teaching of St. John, that here the great mysteiy 
shows more vivid and mature ; that the intuitions of it have 
become more conscious and clear, and the assertions of it 
more definite and indisputable ; that we have advanced from 
the simple observation of facts to the state of retrospection 
and reflection, and that we have attained to the formation 
of a language fitted to the highest conceptions of him who 
is the Only-begotten of the Father, the Life, and the Light, 
and the Truth, and the "Word Eternal. 

►Such is the character of the Gospel collection, regarded 
as an exposition of the doctrine of the person of Christ. 
As a scheme characterized by unit} 7 and progress it has 
obviously the appearance of design : and the appearance of 
design is an argument for its realit} r . 

But ichose design is this, which appears not in the sepa- 
rate books, but in the collection taken as a whole? The 
agents were severed from each other, and wrote as their 
respective turns of mind and historical circumstances deter- 
mined. Where then was the presiding mind which planned 
the whole, and, in qualif} T ing and employing the chosen 
agents, divided to every man severally as he would? By 
the voice of the Church as a body, bj r the ever-accumulating 
consent of her several members, an unchanging answer 
comes down from age to age. The Spirit of the Lord is 
here. 

Yes ! the Spirit was to testify of Jesus, and the fourfold 
Gospel is his permanent testimony. In it he has provided 
that the foundations of our faith should be laid in the region 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 73 

where the foundations of all human knowledge lie, namely, 
in the evidence of the senses, in that which " eyes have 
seen, ears have heard, and hands have handled of the Word 
of Life." He has provided that the object of our faith 
should be known to us as he was known to those who saw 
him, that he should be clearly known by the simplicity, 
fully known by the variety, and certainly known by the 
unity, of the narratives which give to the world the per- 
petual and only representation of its Redeemer. Finally, 
he has provided that the representation should be com- 
pleted by a progressive course of teaching, which first fa- 
miliarizes us with the conversation of our Lord among men 
in its general and ordinary aspect, and then admits us to 
the more concentrated study of the glory and the mystery, 
which had already made themselves felt at every step. 

I have only to add, that the divine teaching thus given, 
even when viewed separately, has the appearance of being 
not a whole scheme ending in itself, but a part of a larger 
scheme. I mean that the general effect of the manifestation 
which is made in the Gospels is such as almost necessitates 
farther disclosures. 

One shining with the glory of the Only-begotten of the 
Father, but clothed in the poverties and infirmities of man, 
has walked before us in power and weakness, in majesty 
and woe. He has come close to us, and drawn us close to 
him ; has touched every chord of our hearts : has secured 
our implicit trust, and become the object of adoration and 
love : then he has hung upon a cross, has sunk into a grave, 
has risen, has ascended, and is gone. It was a brief dispen- 
sation, and is finished once for all. "What did it mean? 
What has it done ? What are our relations with him now ? 
and in what way has this brief appearance affected our 



74 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. II. 

position before God and the state and destiny of the soul? 
What is the nature of the redemption which he has wrought, 
of the salvation which he has brought, of the kingdom of 
God which he has opened to all believers ? 

These were questions left for the Disciples when Jesus 
was gone ; and, when the reader of the Gospel story reaches 
its close, these questions remain for him. The Disciples 
would recall what their Master had spoken, in order to 
gather the whole result of the words of his lips. The reader 
also will review that personal teaching of Christ which is 
interwoven with his visible manifestation, and will ask 
whether it gives an answer to the questions which the mani- 
festation suggests ; whether it does so fully or partially, as 
a final communication, or as the commencement of informa- 
tion to be completed afterwards. This is the subject which 
will next claim our attention, as the first step in the inquiry, 
how the Christian doctrine was added to the Christian facts 
— the divine interpretation to the divine intervention. 

The relations between these two parts of the Gospel have 
now in some measure come into view. We have seen that 
the evangelical narrative creates the want and gives the 
pledge of an evangelical doctrine ; that it also deposits its 
material and provides its safeguard. 

a. The narrative creates the icant, in that it leaves the 
mind of the reader in a state of desire and expectation, 
since the stupendous facts which it recites cannot but sug- 
gest anxious inquiries which wait for clear replies, and vast 
speculations which demand a firm direction. 

b. And this want seems to carry with it the pledge that 
it is raised in order to be satisfied. We feel sure that God 
has not given us the external manifestation of his Son, 
and then left the questions which arise out of it unanswered 



LECT. II. THE GOSPELS. 75 

and the hopes which it suggests undefined. In the fulness 
and vividness of the record of the facts we find an implied 
assurance, that their purposes and results shall also be 
made clear, and receive in their proper place their own 
proper exposition. 

c. Again, the history deposits the material of the doc- 
trine ; for that material is nothing else than Christ manifest 
in the flesh — his incarnation, his obedience, his holiness, 
love, grace, and truth, his death and passion, his resurrec- 
tion and ascension, and then, beyond these, his glorified 
life, and his coming and his kingdom, in which the past 
history finds its necessary and predicted issues. These, 
brethren, are the topics of the evangelical teaching, and 
the constituent elements of the truth, seeing that in this 
manifestation of the Son of God all that men had known 
before has received its full illustration and its final seal, 
and that which they had not known has been once for all 
revealed. All that is to be learned is comprised within 
this circle. The deep mine of truth lies beneath this spot. 
M In him (as the mystery of God) are hid all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge." 1 

d. Lastly, the narrative provides the safeguard of the 
doctrine. Before we arrive at the latter form of teaching, 
we have been secured against its possible dangers, having 
been already taught in the most effective way to feel that 
our trust is not in a name which we learn, but in a person 
whom we know ; not in a scheme of salvation, but in a 
living Saviour. I cannot say how strongly I feel the value 
of the Gospel narrative in this last point of view ; and I 
feel it most when I observe the effect of other methods, 

l Col. ii. 3. 



76 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTREN T E. LECT. II. 

which have trained the minds of disciples mainly by- 
schemes of doctrine without the admixture in its due 
proportion of the ever fresh and healthful element of his- 
tory. Blessed be the wisdom of God, which has ordered 
the teaching of the New Testament upon its actual plan, 
laying first the living knowledge of the Lord Jesus as the 
broadest and safest basis for doctrine and instruction in 
righteousness. The order thus observed in the written 
word teaches how the knowledge of Christ will best be 
opened out to every single soul. He only is duly prepared 
for more abstract revelations of the nature of the redeeming 
work and of its present and future issues, in whose heart 
the past manifestation in the flesh is clearly reflected, and 
who thus has worthity received into his own soul "the 
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God." 



LECTUEE III. 

THE GOSPELS. 

HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE, IF WE NEGLECT SO GREAT SALVATION, WHICH 
AT THE FIRST BEGAN TO BE SPOKEN BY THE LORD? — Heb. U. 3. 

From age to age this question has fulfilled its office. 
Men, trusting in their immunity from criminal acts, have 
found themselves confronted by an accusation which they 
could not answer, and convicted of guilt of which they had 
never thought. Still may this question reach one heart 
after another amongst ourselves, and flash the sense of sin 
and ruin on those who even now, and even here, are practi- 
cally neglecting so great salvation ! 

Not, however, on this question, but on the following 
words, have I now to fix your attention ; words which are 
added to aggravate the sin of that neglect, and to illustrate 
the certainty of a corresponding retribution ; but which do 
so by the mention of a fact which falls into our present 
line of thought at the point which we have now reached. 
This " so great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, 
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him ; God 
also bearing them witness by signs and wonders, and gifts 
of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." 

It began to be spoken by the Lord. The word of the old 
covenant is repeatedly declared to have been " received by 
the disposition of angels" 1 — "ordained by angels" 2 — 
"spoken by angels." 3 The ministering spirits, the mes- 

1 Acts vii. 53. 2 Gal. iii. 19. 3 Heb. ii. 2. 

77 



78 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. III. 

sengers and servants of the Lord, were employed to intro- 
duce the preparatory system. On the other hand, the 
salvation of the new covenant is introduced, not by the 
servants, but by the Lord in person. His introduction of 
it was not confined to providing its conditions and founda- 
tions, by the manifestation of himself, and by the redemp- 
tion which he wrought. He was the messenger and teacher 
of this salvation, as well as its author and giver. It was 
fully wrought by the Lord ; but, besides that, it began to 
be " spoken" by the Lord, its announcement coming first 
from his own lips. Yet this personal speaking was only a 
certain stage in the course of its publication. " It began 
to be spoken by the Lord," 1 and when he ceased to speak 
the word was not yet completed. It was to be cleared and 
assured to the world by those that heard him ; who, having 
been educated and commissioned by him for the purpose, 
proceeded to preach the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven, and with adequate proofs of the co- 
attestation of God. 

This account of the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus, 
as an initiatory stage of the word of salvation, gives me 
the subject of which I have now to treat. Evidently it is 
one of the very highest importance in its bearings on the 
subsequent stages of doctrine ; on which we shall enter in 
a very different spirit, if we consider the word spoken by 
the Lord in person as a finished ivord, or if we regard it as 
a icord begun. 

As steps which may be of use towards attaining a true 
view of the case, I would lay down the following propo- 
sitions. 

1 'ApfflV Kafiova-a \aAci0-0at Scot tou Kvpiov. 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 79 

First, The teaching of the Lord in the Gospels includes 
the substance of all christian doctrine, but does not bear the 
character of finality. Secondly, The teaching of the Lord 
in the Gospels is a visibly progressive course, but on reach- 
ing its highest point announces its oivn incompleteness, and 
opens another stage of instruction. 

I. 1. The teaching of the Lord in the Gospels includes 
the substance of all christian doctrine. Never was teaching 
more natural than his. It was drawn forth by occasions as 
they arose. It shaped itself to the character, the words, 
and the acts of those whom he met in the highwa}? - of the 
world. It borrowed its imagery from the circumstances 
and scenery of the moment. Such teaching as this would 
not seem likely to embrace the whole circle of truth. We 
should expect to find it partial and fragmentary ; full in 
some points, deficient in others, according as the occasions 
for evoking it had or had not arisen. 

Yet surely the whole course of the manifestation of the 
Son of God would be governed not by accident, but by a 
special divine predestination : and there must have been a 
providential appointment of the fittest occasions and the 
most perfect conditions, in order that he who came from 
God to speak the words of God might adequately accom- 
plish his mission. Then the general state of the religious 
atmosphere at the time of his appearing, the strongly dis- 
criminated developments of opinion in Pharisees and 
Sadducees, the condition of individuals who came across 
his path, the scenes and circumstances in which he met 
them, were all prepared by divine governance, to further 
the effectual fulfilment of his mission as the teacher of men. 
Thus it came to pass, that not only in set discourses (which 
seldom occur), but in transient conversations and sudden 



80 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

replies, in words drawn forth by the appeals of the 
wretched, by the temptations of enemies or by the errors 
of disciples, in strong denunciations of the wicked or in 
tender consolations of the weak, the mind of Christ has 
been expressed on all points, and the store of divine sen- 
tences is full. 

Shall I enter into detail, and begin to show how the 
whole argument on justification in the Epistle to the 
Romans is involved in the assertion, that " the Son of 
Man was lifted up, that he that belioveth on him should 
not perish but have everlasting life " ? 1 — how the exposi- 
tion of the Christian standing in the Epistle to the Gala- 
tians is comprehended in the words, " The servant abideth 
not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the 
son make you free ye shall be free indeed " ? 2 — how the 
sacrificial doctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews is implied 
in all its parts by the words, " This is my blood of the new 
covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the re- 
mission of sins"? 3 Though such proof in detail is here 
impossible, it would yet be easy to show that ever} 7 doctrine 
expanded in the Epistles roots itself in some pregnant say- 
ing in the Gospels ; and that the first intimation of every 
truth, revealed to the holy Apostles by the Spirit, came 
first from the lips of the Son of Man. In each case the 
later revelation may enlarge the earlier, may show its 
meaning and define its application, but the earlier revela- 
tion stands behind it still, and we owe our first knowledge 
of every part of the new covenant to those personal com- 
munications in which the salvation began to be spoken by 
the Lord. 

1 JohD iii. 14, 15. 2 John viii. 35, 36. 3 Matt. xxvi. 28. 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 81 

"In all things he was to have the pre-eminence," 1 in 
speaking as well as in acting, not only as the Life, but 
also as the Light of men. The more we study the records 
of that short ministry in the flesh, the more we are im- 
pressed with the fact that all the past and all the future 
are gathered up in it. Past inspired teaching here finds 
its meaning interpreted and its authority sealed, whilst (so 
to speak) the several chapters of future inspired teaching 
are opened by pregnant summaries and certified by antici- 
patory sanctions. That is indeed a time " of large dis- 
course, looking before and after," and the words of 
Prophets on the one side, and of Apostles on the other, are 
forever justified and maintained by the words of him who 
came between them. 

There was nothing then on the lips of the preachers of 
the Gospel, but what had been " begun to be spoken " by 
its first preacher ; and in following to their utmost the 
words of the Apostles we are still within the compass of 
the words of the Lord Jesus. 

2. Yet those words do not bear the character of finality. 
The doctrine delivered in the Gospels appears to need, 
and to promise, further explanations, combinations, and 
developments. The character of that ministry on the 
whole is introductory. It is so in its form, in its method, 
and in its substance. 

a. Our Lord's general teaching, in regard to its form, is 
cast in the mould of parable or proverb. So it appears 
more especially in the first three Gospels as compared with 
the fourth : and it is agreed on all hands that the former 
represent the Ordinary course of the teaching of Jesus ; and 

1 lv napiv avr&s vpiarevav. 



82 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

that the latter purposely collects into one view those 
stronger assertions of divine mysteries, which were made 
on particular occasions, and which, when thus combined, 
form for us a more advanced stage of revelation. Yet in 
St. John also the characteristic form of parable continues, 
though its visible diminution corresponds with the in- 
creased intensity of revealing light. 

There can be no need to exhibit the fact of this prevail- 
ing character of our Lord's discourse. It is to be noticed, 
not only in the large amount of professed parables, but in 
the general habit <5f proverbial sayings, that is, sayings 
which glance by us, as condensed and momentary parables, 
suggesting much that it would take long to tell, or, at 
least, sa3'ings which have more or less the shape and air of 
proverbs, complete in themselves, terse and pointed, 
fashioned for common memory and common use, meaning 
more than they say, and, by strong antithesis or seeming 
paradox, fitted to arouse reflection, and to fix on the mind 
some principle of thought or conduct. This characteristic 
of our Lord's teaching does not exist in that of his ser- 
vants. It is peculiar and distinctive ; and not without 
reason, for it falls in with that character of germinating 
fulness which has been already ascribed to the personal 
ministry of Christ ; and not less plainty with that character 
of initiation which is now to be asserted. 

It is of the essence of proverbial speech that it detaches 
itself from particular occasions, that it has a capacity for 
various applications, and a fitness for permanent use, and 
embraces large meaning within narrow limits. It therefore 
fitted well the lips which were to utter the great principles 
of Christian thought, and to leave them amongst men for 
all times and occasions. Yet this form of teaching belongs 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 83 

to the introduction of knowledge. It seems intended to set 
the mind working, and to rouse the spirit of inquiry by 
partial or disguised discoveries of truth. "To them that 
are without," said our Lord, " all these things are done in 
parables ; " 1 intimating that the use of that form of instruc- 
tion is appropriate to the preliminary and probationary 
stage. In its fullest degree it belongs originally to those 
that are without, "though, by means of light afterwards 
afforded, it continues to minister large instruction to 
those that are within. To the multitude our Lord's 
teaching was mainly of this character : to his disciples it 
was obviously less so. To them " it was given to know 
the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in par- 
ables." 2 Yet to them also, through all their time of train- 
ing, we see that this mode of speech is largely used, and 
when the personal intercourse is about to close they 
receive the assurance that the teaching of the future 
will Jierein differ from that of the past: "These things 
have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh 
when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I 
shall show j^ou plainly of the Father." 3 The words remain 
as a sufficient testimony that the peculiar character of 
language, in which the salvation began to be spoken by 
the Lord, is a mark of an introductory stage, and, so far as 
it prevails, is both a sign that the time for showing plainly 
is not yet come, and a pledge that it is to follow. 

b. As the form of the teaching leads to this conclusion, 
so also does its method. It is seemingly to a great degree 



i Mark iv. 11. kttvois ro7 s f|&> — yet certainly not to keep them 
without, but as the appropriate means to draw them within. 
2 Luke viii. 10. 3 John xvi. 25. 



84 THE PROGEESS OF DOCTPwINE. LECT. III. 

a method of chances aDcl occasions ; carried on by words 
suited to the moment, by separate addresses, or replies to 
particular persons, and by explanations added to particu- 
lar acts. It is moreover in these communications, rather 
than in the deliberate discourses, that the higher revelations 
of his Gospel are for the most part contained. When u he 
opened his mouth and taught" in the Sermon on the Mount, 
he delivered to those who were entering his kingdom the 
great principles of moral righteousness. But it is from words 
dropped as it were in a private conversation by night, or in 
collision with the provocations of unbelievers, or amid sighs 
and sorrows by the grave of a friend, that we derive our 
plainest assurances of the mysteries of his salvation. While 
we gather up the precious things of his ordinary discourses, 
we are made sensible that other truths are implied, deeper 
than those which are announced, and from time to time the 
words which assert those deeper truths break with a kind of 
suddenness on our ears. It would hardly appear likely that 
such a mode of teaching was intended to be final ; rather we 
should expect it to prove (as in fact it did) the prefatory 
announcement of a coming system of truth, in which the 
several sayings would discover their cohesion and the con- 
densed assertions would expand into their fulness. 

c. If the form and method of the personal teaching of 
Jesus suggest the conclusion, that it was meant to be, not 
the whole of his teaching to men, but only the initiatory 
stage of it, that conclusion becomes more sure when we 
come to consider the substance of the doctrine itself. 

The doctrine bears a double character. It is, first, the 
clearing, restoring, and perfecting of truth already known ; 
and it is, secondly, the revealing of a nrysterious economy 
which had not yet been divulged. It is, I suppose, obvious 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 85 

to every reader of the Gospels, that the doctrine contained 
in them is much more full and explicit in the first of these 
characters than it is in the second ; that all which belongs 
to human duty and character comes out habitually to view 
in the clearest light, while the discoveries of that secret 
scheme of things, by which the divine purposes are worked 
out, are either made by implication, or are marked by a cer- 
tain brevity and reserve. This fact is generally recognized, 
and especial \y b}^ those minds which shrink from the more 
mysterious parts of revelation. These fall back upon the 
Lord's own teaching in the Gospels, as containing more to 
which they can cordially assent, or at least less which trou- 
bles and perplexes them, than they find in the writings of 
his followers. All that troubles and perplexes them is in- 
deed there ; but the restricted measure of its exposition 
allows them more easily to ignore its presence. Such men 
fly to the Sermon on the Mount, and linger over parables 
and discourses, which instruct us in the great original truths 
of the fatherhood of God, of heartfelt prayer, of love and 
forgiveness, of lowliness and truth, of obedience and self- 
sacrifice, of confidence in pardoning mercj^, and of faith 
(yet only general and preliminary) in him whom God hath 
sent. 

It is indeed true that in passing through the synoptic 
Gospels we meet with few express and definite assertions 
of the real nature and effects of the mediatorial work of 
Christ; and if we drop out of notice those few strong 
s ayings, andare content to take the lowest meaning of 
every expression that sounds ambiguous, and are resolutely 
insensible to the suggestion of typical miracles and to the 
implications contained in the whole history, we may per- 
haps arrive at the Gospel of St. John with no higher con- 

8 



86 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

victions than were expressed by the inquirer, whom we 
there find uttering the dubious acknowledgment, "Master, 
we know that thou art a teacher come from G-od." 1 

But having acknowledged this much, we must from this 
point acknowledge much more. We find that the Gospel 
on which we have entered has collected for us the scattered 
sa3dngs, in which, from time to time, our Lord asserted his 
highest offices, and opened the mystery of his work. One 
after another the great testimonies concerning himself fall 
on our ears : yet, in regard to every one of them, we are 
made to feel that the intimations given are at the time 
be}*ond the apprehensions of the hearers, and this not only 
on account of the dulness of the particular persons, but 
because the testimonies imply events which have not yet 
happened, and are fragments of a revelation for which the 
hour is not yet come. Glance through a few of these say- 
ings : The heavens open, and the angels ascending and 
descending on the Son of Man ; 2 the Temple destined and 
raised up again in three days ; 3 the birth of water and the 
Spirit ; 4 the Son of Man who came from heaven, who goes 
to heaven, and who is in heaven ; 5 the lifting up like the 
serpent in the wilderness, that men may not perish ; 6 the 
water which he will give, springing up into everlasting 
life ; 7 the eating the flesh and drinking the blood as the 
means of everlasting life and of being raised up at the last 
day. 8 These sa}'ings, and many others like them, are ut- 
tered to hearers whose perplexity is made apparent, and are 

1 oti dirb Oeov il.t'jlvdas hiod<JKa).os. 

2 John i. 51. 3 Ibid. ii. 19. 4 Ibid. iii. 5. 
s Ibid. iii. 13. 6 Ibid. iii. 14. ? n,id. iv. 14. 
8 Ibid. vi. 54. 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 87 

at the time left unexplained, to await the light which they 
are to receive from future events and later discoveries. This 
(if I may so call it) anticipatory character of our Lord's 
teaching, with regard to the work which he came to fulfil, 
strikes us most forcibly, when we compare his mode of 
speaking on the subject with the full and explicit language 
which becomes familiar to us in the writings of his Apostles. 

And if this account of one part of his teaching be true, 
an evident consequence follows in regard to the other part. 
Grant that the discoveries of the redeeming work of Christ 
are in any measure restricted and deferred, and it follows 
that a large part of the teaching on human duty must be 
restricted and deferred in proportion. Instructions in faith 
in himself must wait for their perfecting, until the things to 
be believed concerning him have grown clear. Instructions 
in our relations to God (whether bearing on the hope of a 
penitent or on the confidence of a child) have not obtained 
their completion while the grounds of forgiveness and ac- 
ceptance are in any manner obscure. Finally, instructions 
on duty and character must be deficient in some of their 
most important elements, while the motives which flow from 
redemption cannot be assumed as recognized, because Jesus 
has not yet died ; while the life in the Spirit, and the power 
of the resurrection, and the citizenship in heaven, cannot 
be realized, because Jesus has not jet revived, risen, and 
ascended. 

In illustration of these assertions I will instance the treat- 
ment of the two doctrines of the forgiveness of sins and the 
success of prayer. We know how intimately in the evangel- 
ical system these two doctrines are associated with the 
personal agency of our Redeemer, the one with his atoning 
sacrifice, the other with his priestly mediation. But it is 



88 THE PEOGEESS OF DOCTE1XE. LECT. III. 

certain that in his own teaching on earth they are not so 
treated. Other truths concerning them are brought forward 
when these are absent. 

Take the first example. "Forgive, and ye shall be for- 
given ;" 1 "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she 
loved much ;" 2 " I forgave thee all that debt because thou 
desiredst me ;" 3 "He smote upon his breast, saying, God 
be merciful to me a sinner" 4 and then " went down to his 
house justified rather than the other." Lastly, in the great 
parable of forgiveness the erring son simply returns, and the 
father falls on his neck and kisses him. " Father," says 
he, "I have sinned against heaven and before thee," and 
straightway he is clothed with the best robe, and has the 
ring on his hand, and the shoes on his feet. " He was 
dead and is alive again : he was lost, and is found." There 
is no mention of an}' intercessor, no typical hint of sacrifice 
or other atonement, no condition airywhere supposed, but 
what is included in " because thou desiredst me," or in the 
presence of penitence and tenderness of heart, and the ab- 
sence of an unforgiving spirit towards others. Yet at other 
times there fall from the Lord's own lips some few words at 
least which reveal himself as the channel, and his blood as 
the purchase, of the forgiveness which he preaches so freely. 
" The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins ; " s 
" M} r blood shed for many for the remission of sins." G These 
saj'ings give a momentary insight into the depths of the 
subject, and disclose something of the mysterious means by 
which forgiveness has been procured, and through which, 
when once revealed, it must be sought. It is evident that 

i Luke vi. 37. 2 Ibid. vii. 47. 3 Matt, xviii. 32. 
4 Luke xviii. 13. 5 Matt. ix. 6. 6 Ibid. xxvi. 28. 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 89 

such a revelation cannot remain as a mere associated idea, 
that it must become fundamental, and give a peculiar and 
distinctive character to the Christian doctrine of the for- 
giveness of sins. But we see that it is not wrought out in 
the Gospels. Must we not then expect that this will yet 
be done ? and that, in some future stage of divine teaching, 
we shall find the word "Forgive and ye shall be forgiven" 
elevated and opened into " Forgiving one another as God 
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," * and the hope of for- 
giveness placed forever on its true basis of faith in him, 
" in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the 
forgiveness of sins." 2 

Again, take the doctrine of acceptance and success in 
prayer. How earnest and how strong are our Lord'e dec- 
larations on this subject ! It is needless to rehearse them, 
but these precious assurances are here connected onty with 
the earnestness, importunity, and simplicity of the worship- 
pers, and with a general faith in the Father's will to give 
good things to those that ask him. We might be ready to 
say, "The whole instruction amounts to this, — Dismiss 
all heathen and all Pharisaic notions on this subject. Go 
simply to God as your Father. Ask, and ye shall receive." 
Yet he who has taught us, before he ceases to speak, adds 
something more. At the highest point of his teaching we 
hear him say, u No man cometh unto the Father but by 
me; 3 " If ye shall ask anything in my name J will do it." 4 
Here is an immense accession of revelation, which, when 
fully comprehended, must give its character to the whole 
Christian doctrine and to the whole Christian habit of 

i Eph. iv. 32. 2 Ibid. i. 7. 

s John xiv. 6. * Ibid. xvi. 23. 

8* 



90 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRDsE. L^CT. III. 

prayer. But if we are ever to see this consequence wrought 
out by divine teaching, we must find it in some future stage 
of instruction, in which the access to the Father by the 
Son, and the new and living way which he has consecrated 
for us, and the offices of the High Priest over the house 
of God, shall be recognized as the true grounds of the 
full assurance of faith, for him who draws near to God in 
prayer. 

The argument then stands thus. The doctrine of the 
Gospel includes special revelations which must from their 
nature become the foundations of moral and spiritual life. 
But in the doctrine of the Gospels they are not so treated, 
nor indeed could they be, since the revelations themselves 
are chiefly anticipatory allusions to facts which have not 
3 r et taken place. In these revelations the teaching culmi- 
nates rather than commences. They are the point at which 
it arrives, not that from which it starts. The doctrine does 
not therefore bear the character of finality. We expect 
another stage, in which these special revelations shall be 
not only cleared and combined, but shall hold that funda- 
mental place in the whole system of instruction which they 
tend inevitably to assume. And thus, from the considera- 
tion of the substance and proportions of the doctrine in the 
Gospels, as well as from the observation of its form and 
method, I conclude that I am here only in an initiatory 
6tage of divine teaching, and that another part of the course 
must lie before me. 

II. But I am not left to draw this conclusion. The doc- 
trine of the Gospels not only looks as if it were to be fol- 
lowed by another stage of teaching, but declares that such 
is the fact. I come to my second proposition, that the 
personal teaching of the Lord is a visibly progressive system. 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 91 

which, on reaching its highest point, declares its own incom- 
pleteness, and refers us to another stage of instruction. 

1. Place side by side the first discourse in St. Matthew 
and the last in St. John, and the truth of the first part of 
this proposition is at once apparent, namely, that the per- 
sonal teachiug of the Lord is a visibly progressive system. 
The Sermon on the Mount at the opening of the ministry, 
and the address in the upper room delivered at its close, 
are separated from each other, not only by difference of cir- 
cumstance and feeling, but as implying on the part of the 
hearers wholly different stages in the knowledge of truth. 
There is a greater interval between these two discourses 
than there is between the teaching of the Gospels as a 
whole and that of the Epistles. 

The first discourse is the voice of a minister of the cir- 
cumcision, clearing and confirming the divine teaching given 
to the fathers. Blessings, laws, and promises are alike 
founded on the Old Testament language, which the speaker 
at the same time adopts and interprets. He keeps in a line 
with the past, while he makes a clear step in advance. He 
gives, not so much a new code, as a new edition of the old 
one. The word of authorit}^, "i say unto you," is directed 
not to destroy but to fulfil. It is the authority of the origi- 
nal lawgiver, clearing up his own intentions, and disallowing 
the perversions of men. As plainly as the first discourse 
links itself to the past, so plainly does the last discourse 
reach on to the future. If the one reverts to what was said 
in old time, the other casts the mind forward on a day of 
knowledge which is dawning and a new teacher who is com- 
ing. In passing from the one point to the other, we have 
left behind us the language and associations of the Old Tes- 
tament : we have entered a new world of thought, and hear 

8* 



92 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LEOT. III. 

a new language which is being created for its exigencies. 
What makes the thought and the language new ? One sin- 
gle fact ; namely, that the true relation of the Lord Jesus 
to the spiritual life of his people is now in a measure re- 
vealed. " Ye believe in God, believe also in me : " — this is 
the keynote of the whole address. And in the same strain 
it continues, " No man cometh unto the Father but by me ; " 
"Abide in me and I in you;" "Without me ye can do 
nothing." How foreign would such words have been in the 
Sermon on the Mount ! We are not unprepared for them 
here, though even here they mean more than can be yet 
understood. I do not speak of single expressions, but of 
the whole doctrine on faith and prayer, and love, and ser- 
vice, and hope, and life. All subjects have here assumed 
their distinctively Christian character: they- are "in Christ 
Jesus." The faith fixes itself on him, and on the Father 
through him. The prayer is " in his name." The love is. 
a response tolas love. The service is the fruit of union 
with Mm. The hope is that of being with him where he is ; 
to abide in him is the secret of life, safety, fruitfulness, and 
joy ; and the guiding power of this new state is not the 
explanation of a law, but the gift of the Holy Ghost the 
Comforter. Compare these ideas with those which charac- 
terize the first Gospel teaching, and 3^011 see how far yon 
have boon carried from the point at which you started. You 
see how much must have intervened in the gradual revela- 
tion of Christ, and in the gradual advance of his teaching, 
before such a stage of doctrine could be reached. 

And much had intervened. To show how much, it would 
be necessary to trace through all the Gospel record the 
unfolding of the salvation, as it began to be spoken by the 
Lord, and the steps by which it was brought about, that the 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 93 

Master and the disciples should become the Saviour and the 
believers, and that the external hearing and folloAving should 
pass into the nrysterious relations of an inward and spiritual 
union. It is enough to recall the fact that, through all the 
works of mercy, the corrections of error, and the instruc- 
tions in righteousness, a deeper lesson yet is sinking into 
the minds of his hearers, in the growing sense of a profound 
and ineffable relation borne b}^ him to the human race and 
to every human soul. He makes it felt, that he stands 
before men as the one object on which faith must fasten, as 
the one who has power on earth to forgive sins, who is come 
to seek and to save that which is lost, who gives rest to the 
heavy laden, as the giver of eternal life, as the quickener of 
whom he will, as the bread which came down from heaven 
that a man may eat thereof and not die, as giving his flesh 
for the life of the world, his life a ransom for many, his 
blood as the blood of the new covenant shed for many for 
the remission of sins. Testimonies like these gather as we 
advance ; and while the Lord in his ordinary teaching ful- 
fils his mission as the expounder of the laws, and the exam- 
ple of the character, and the prophet of the destinies of the 
kingdom of God, he discloses at the same time by these 
scattered sajings a far deeper and more fundamental rela- 
tion to that kingdom and to all its several members. 

But while these disclosures are yet in progress they are 
sudden^ cut off. The ministry must end : the hour is 
come. AVe enter the upper room, and attend the last dis- 
course, which is the close and the consummation of the 
teaching of the Lord on earth. . 

2. We turn, then, to that portion of the word of God 
which extends from the beginning of the 14th to the end of 
the 17th chapter of St. John. There, in words most simple 



94 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

but unfathoraably deep, addressed first to men and then to 
God, there flow forth the thoughts which belong to that 
hour. Oh tender, solemn words ! oh words of majesty and 
love, of divine sorrow and joy ! words for the saddest 
moments, the loftiest moments, the last moments of life ! 
Not in the cold spirit of one who would prove a point do I 
turn to them now, though it be indeed to decide a question. 
But what a question ! Not one affecting some single doc- 
trine which some text in the discourse may touch, but one 
affecting all the doctrine before and after, all that began to 
be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them 
that heard him. It is the question whether the point which 
we have reached is final or central : whether the true teach- 
ing of God here reaches a close or effects a transition. 
There is no uncertainty in the answer, for to give that 
answer is one main purpose of the discourse. The Lord 
speaks to the occasion. He would have it understood to 
what point in the progress of his teaching we are come, 
and what is the relation between that which is now ending 
and that which is about to begin. 

At the first glance it is plain that the character of the 
discourse is distinctly transitional; that it announces not 
an end, but a change; and that, in closing one course of 
teaching, it at the same time opens another. As the first 
discourse linked the personal teaching of Christ to the Law 
and the Prophets which went before it, so the last discourse 
links that teaching to the dispensation of the Spirit, which 
is to come after it. The fact on which the first is founded 
is that the Law of God has been given to men as the guide 
to 7'ighteousness ; the fact on which the last is founded is 
that Jesus himself has now been presented to men as the 
object of faith. And as it was intimated in the one case 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 95 

that the lesson of righteousness was jet incomplete, and 
was to be perfected by Jesus himself, so it is intimated in 
the other that the lesson of faith is yet incomplete, and is 
to be perfected by the Holy Ghost whom he will send. 

First, the narrative is careful to show us that this lesson 
of faith had been imperfectly learned. The auditors are 
the men whom the Lord had chosen and trained, and who 
had watched most closely the whole course of his manifesta- 
tion. Yet, as he proceeds, what do we hear? " Lord, we 
know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the 
way? " " Show us the Father and it sufficethus." " How 
is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto 
the world? " " What is this that he saith? we cannot tell 
what he saith." By such voices of faint and partial appre- 
hension or of sore perplexity, we learn how far the teaching 
of the past had gone with them, in regard to those truths 
which were being then set forth. 

But it might be, notwithstanding, that the course of 
divine instruction icas complete, and that events } T et to 
come and reflection on the past would be sufficient to open 
to them its meaning. Not thus does the Lord reply. 
Mingled with sacl reflections, that he has been so long time 
with them and that } T et they have not known him, he gives 
the consoling assurance that their instruction in the truth 
is not yet ended. A part of it is over, but only a part ; 
and a part which had its hindrances as well as its helps. 
The presence of Christ in the flesh had been a help to 
what they had already learned ; it was a hindrance to what 
they had now to learn. (6) While he sat there before them 
in the body, it was hard to understand the mystery of a 
spiritual union. That hindrance is to be removed ; " It is 
expedient for you that I go away." 



96 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

Then the teaching which he had given them must close. 
Yes, but another teaching shall be substituted ; which 
shall be also Ms, though suited to the new relations which 
he shall bear to them in his glorified state. "It is ex- 
pedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the 
Comforter will not come unto } T ou, but if I depart I will 
send him unto you." Then follow those precious promises 
of the coming and office and work of the Holy Ghost, which 
expand their fulfilment over the whole Church and through- 
out all ages. But while it is clear that, in the wa}^ of ex- 
tension and of inference, many of the words allow and 
invite this wider application, it is far more evident that 
in their first intention they are directly addressed to those 
who heard them, and meant to meet the question of the 
particular crisis which had then arrived. 1 

1 "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com- 
forter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of 
truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him 
not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him, for he dwelleth 
with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, 
I will come unto you." John xiv. 16-18. "At that day ye shall 
know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Ver. 
20. " These things have I spoken to you, Avhile abiding with you; 
but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father 
will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,- and bring all 
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said uuto you." 
Ver. 25, 25. "When the Comforter is come, he shall testify of 
me." xv. 26. " He shall reprove the world of sin, and of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believe not on me ; of 
righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more ; 
of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have 
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 
Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 97 

No more distinct assurance could have been given that 
those future teachers of the world were not then at the end, 
but only at a certain point in the progress of their educa- 
tion, and that a teaching remained for them, which should 
both continue and surpass that which they had already 
received. 

But had they not heard the truth from their Lord ! Yes ; 
and it was to be the office of the Spirit to recall to their 
minds the truth which they had heard, as the text and 
substance of their future knowledge. "He shall bring all 
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you." But though in the teaching of Jesus all the truth 
might be implied, it was not all opened; therefore the 
Holy Ghost was to add that which had not been delivered, 
as well as to recall that which had been already spoken- 
There is an evident contrast intended, with regard to ex- 
tent of knowledge, between " these tilings which I have 
spoken while } r et present with you," and " all things which 
he shall teach you." Nay, there is the plainest assertion 
which could be made, that things were to be said after- 
wards which had not been said then ; and those not few 
but many — (" I have yet many things to say unto you") 
— not of secondary importance but of the highest moment 
(" Ye cannot bear them now." *) They are things of such a 
kind as would now weigh down and oppress your minds, 
seeing that they surpass your present powers of spiritual 
apprehension. But these many and weighty things shall 

into all truth ; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever 
he shall hear that shall he speak ; and he shall show you things to 
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall 
show it unto you." xvi. 8-14. 

1 ou bvvaxjtk /3aoTa£eur. 
9 



98 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

not be left untold : " When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, 
he shall guide you into all the truth." He shall guide 
jou, 1 as by successive steps and continuous direction, into 
the whole of that truth 2 of which the commencements have 
now been given ; and especially into the highest and cen- 
tral part of it. For it is also made plain on what subject 
this light shall be poured, and into what mysteries this 
guidance shall lead. " He shall testify of me;" " he shall 
glorify me;" "he shall take of mine and show it unto 
you ; " "at that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, 
a7id ye in me, and I in you" Not then for some secondary 
matters (details of Church order or relations of Jews and 
Gentiles) was this light and witness of the Holy Ghost 
reserved (though to these questions also the divine guid- 
ance extended), but rather for the great and central mys- 
tery of godliness, embracing the nature, work, and offices 
of Jesus Christ, his mediatorial relations to the Father and 
to the Church, the redemption of men by his blood, and the 
salvation of men by his life. But instead of attempting to 
enumerate these great ideas, it were better to comprehend 
them all in his own vast and unexplained expression, " He 
shall take of mine, 3 and shall show it unto you." 

We have now reviewed the teaching of our Lord in the 
flesh, in order to draw from it an answer to this question, 
" Is the revelation of the great salvation given to us in 
that teaching to be considered as final and complete?" 
The answer has been, " No ! It has not the appearance 
of being final, and it explicitly declares that it is not com- 
plete. When it was ended, it was to be followed by a new 

1 bhrjyfjoei. 2 (Is irdoav rrtv alrjBdav. S U rov (pou htyirai 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 99 

testimony from God, in order that man}?" things might be 
spoken which had not been spoken then." 

The testimony came ; the things were spoken ; and in 
the apostolic writings we have their enduring record. 
In those writings we find the fulfilment of an expectation 
which the Gospels raised, and recognize the performance 
of a promise which the Gospels gave. If we do not, the 
word of salvation, which began to be spoken by the Lord, 
has never been finished for us. Then, not only would the 
end be wanting, but the beginning would become obscure. 
The lessons of holiness would still shine in their own 
pure light, and the rebukes of human error would show in 
their severe outlines ; but the words which open by antici- 
pation the nrystery of the great salvation, flashing some- 
times on its deep foundations, sometimes on its lofty 
summits, would but dazzle and confuse our sight ; and we 
should be tempted to turn from their discoveries, as from 
visions which had no substance, or from enigmas which we 
could not interpret. 

And so in fact they treat the personal teaching of Christ 
who give not its due honor to the subsequent witness of his 
Spirit, regarding the apostolic writings as only Petrine, 
Pauline, or Alexandrian versions of the Christian doctrine, 
interesting records of the views of individuals or schools of 
opinion concerning the salvation which Jesus began to 
speak. No ! the words of our Lord are not honored (as 
these men seem to think) by being thus isolated ; for it is 
an isolation which separates them from other words which 
also are his own, words given by him in that day when he 
no longer spake in proverbs, but showed his servants 
plainly of the Father. The brief communications in which 
the salvation began to be spoken by the Lord must lose 



100 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. III. 

half their glory, if a raist and darkness be cast over that 
later teaching which was ordained to throw its reflex light 
upon them. 

Our thoughts have now arrived at the point where the 
day of " speaking in proverbs " -changes into the day of 
"showing plainly." It is a critical moment ; for, whatever 
progress of doctrine the change may involve, all our satis- 
faction in its increased distinctness of outline and accumu- 
lated fulness of detail must depend on our assurance that 
the teacher is still the same. My next duty will therefore 
be that of noting the care which he himself has taken to fix 
that assurance on our minds. His care is never wanting 
where it is needed, and we have cause to praise his holy 
name that in this, as well as in so many other ways, he has 
knit together the one body of his written word by living 
and indissoluble bands, so that its interdependent parts 
fulfil effectually their several functions, in commencing or 
completing the one testimony of the great salvation. 

It is of the testiinon}^ that I now speak. More happy is 
that common ministry in which we present the salvation 
itself. Only for the sake of the salvation does the testi- 
mon}^ exist. There is a deep interest for every considerate 
mind in the form, the plan, the character, of the sacred 
writings ; but it is not a merely literary or intellectual 
interest : it is one created by the object for which the 
writings are given. The reader of the Gospels is not 
suffered to close the volume without a solemn admonition 
of the purpose for which it has been placed in his hands. 
" These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus 
is the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life 
through his name." Does it wound our hearts to see this 
wondrous record misapprehended, its unity denied, its glory 



LECT. III. THE GOSPELS. 101 

darkened? Perhaps it is a sadder sight in the eye of 
heaven when its inspiration is vindicated, its perfection 
appreciated, its majesty asserted, by one who at the same 
time for himself neglects the great salvation. Snch a 
case is not impossible — perhaps is not uncommon. The 
Day will declare it. At least let it be remembered, that 
the study of the testimony is one thing, and the enjoyment 
of the salvation is another, and that the record of the 
things which Jesus did and said has attained its end with 
those only, who, " believing, have life through his name." 

9* 



LECTURE IV. 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

THE FORMER TREATISE HAVE I MADE, O THEOPHILUS, OF ALL THAT JESUS 
BEGAN BOTH TO DO AND TO TEACH, UNTIL THE DAT IN WHICH HE WAS 
TAKEN UP, AFTER THAT HE THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST HAD GIVEN COM- 
MANDMENTS UNTO THE APOSTLES WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN: TO WHOM ALSO 
HE SHEWED HIMSELF ALIVE AFTER HIS PASSION BY MANY INFALLIBLE 
PROOFS, BEING SEEN OF THEM FORTY DAYS, AND SPEAKING OF THE THINGS 
PERTAINING TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD: AND, BEING ASSEMBLED TO- 
GETHER WITH THEM, COMMANDED THEM THAT THEY SHOULD NOT DEPART 
FROM JERUSALEM, BUT WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER, WHICH, 
SAITH HE, YE HAVE HEARD OF ME. — Acts i. 1-4. 

With these words we enter on a new stage of history and 
of doctrine, and the} T are words which connect it with the 
past. The links of Scripture (if I may so call them) unit- 
ing one part to another, and assisting our sense of the con- 
tinuity of the whole, are wortlry of especial notice. Thus 
the Gospels have been brought to a fit and (as it seems 
from the final words) an intended conclusion, at the end of 
the twentieth chapter of St. John ; but 3-et another chapter 
is added, as if dictated by some afterthought, which in its 
effect links the whole Gospel record to the book which suc- 
ceeds it. The miracle which had alread}' foreshadowed the 
work of the fishers of men is repeated, but with altered cir- 
cumstances, typical of the change which was at hand. For 
now the Lord is no longer with them in the ship, but stands 
diinl}- seen upon the shore ; yet from thence issues his direc- 
tions, and shows the presence of his power working with 
them in their seemingly lonely toil. Then the charge is 

102 



LECT. IV. the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 103 

left to "feed his sheep," and lastly the future destinies of 
the two chief Apostles are suffered to be faintly seen. 

In like manner does the book of Acts at its opening at- 
tach itself to the preceding record ; throwing back our 
thoughts on " the former treatise of all that Jesus began 
both to do and teach," and then passing rapidly in review 
the last circumstances "which connect the Apostles with 
their Lord, as the instruments which he had chosen and 
prepared for the work which he had yet to do. Thus the 
history which follows is linked to, or (may I not rather say) 
welded with, the past ; and the founding of the Church in 
the earth is presented as one continuous work, begun by 
the Lord in person, and perfected by the same Lord through 
the ministry of men. This is the point on which I have 
now to insist. " The former treatise" delivered to us, not 
all that Jesus did and taught, but " all that Jesus began 
both to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up." 
The following writings appear intended to give us, and do 
in fact profess to give us, that which Jesus continued to do 
and teach after the day in which he was taken up. (7) 

There are then two points which claim our attention when 
we pass beyond that day, and enter on the second stage of 
New Testament doctrine. One is that the authority is con- 
tinued; the other is that the method is changed. Our in- 
quiries will naturally be directed (1) to the evidence for the 
first fact, and (3) to the reasons for the second. 

I. First, then, I turn to the books which lie before us, to 
ask what evidence they give, that the divine authority, which 
was self-evident in the first stage of teaching, is continued 
also in the second, or, in other words, that this is as really 
as the other a part of revelation, and a period of divine com- 
munication of truth to man. The fundamental part of this 



104 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

evidence consists in the words, which were cited in the last 
lecture, from the mouth of the Lord himself: for in the 
words of his lips is centred the evidence for all teaching 
which he has given us through the lips of men. But we are 
now to see how these intimations are supported in the books 
which follow. 

1. We find, then, that the doctrinal writings of the Apos- 
tles are prefaced by the book of Acts, some account of that 
which was done being given as an introduction to the record 
of that which was taught. The function of this book in the 
scheme of Scripture is of very high importance, in other 
respects, to which we must advert hereafter, and especially 
in that which concerns us now. It is a record of the per- 
sonal action of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first evolution of 
his gospel and formation of his Church. 

With him and with his last words on earth the book be- 
gins, reminding us of his commission and commands to the 
Apostles whom he had chosen. Then we see him depart, 
and they are left to their work. Yet they do not begin it 
till the promised Spirit is come ; they wait for the promise 
of the Father, which they have heard of him. One trans- 
action in the interval shows their own assurance that he 
who directed them so lately intends to direct them still : 
"Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show 
whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take 
part in this ministry and apostleship." 1 Such language in- 
timates the relation in which they still felt themselves to 
their now unseen Master. But soon the promised gift is 
bestowed, and the dispensation of the Spirit has begun. 
And what in their view is the dispensation of the Spirit? 

1 Acts i. 24. 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 105 

It is the agency and gift of Jesus. "Being by the right 
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the 
promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which 
ye now see and hear." 1 

This view of the operation of the Spirit, as the medium 
through which the Lord Jesus wrought and taught, is car- 
ried through the whole course of the history which follows. 
As in the promise, so in the history, " TJie Comforter will 
come unto jou " — " I will come unto you," — are but two 
sides of one and the same fact. On critical occasions and 
at each onward step the hand of the Master is made dis- 
tinctly visible. The first martyr dies for a testimony, which 
is felt to be an advance on what had been given before, 
being understood to imply that " this Jesus of Nazareth 
shall destroy this place, and change the customs which 
Moses delivered us ; " and his words are sealed by the vis- 
ion of his Lord in glory. The consignment of the Gospel 
to the Ethiopian proselyte was another step in advance, 
and for this " the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip." 
The preaching of the word to Gentiles, and their admission 
into the Church, was a greater step ; and for this the Lord 
intervenes b}^ the mission of an angel to Cornelius, by a 
vision and a voice of the Spirit to Peter, and by a kind of 
second Pentecost to the converts themselves. But when 
the greatest step of all is to be taken in the onward course 
of the Gospel, then most visibly does the great Head of the 
Church make manifest his personal administration. A new 
Apostle appears ; not like him who was added before Pen- 
tecost, completing the number of the original college, and 
losing his individuality in its ranks ; but one standing apart 

1 Acts ii. 33. 



106 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

and in advance, under whose hand both the doctrines and 
the destinies of the Gospel receive a development so exten- 
sive and so distinct that it seemed almost another Gospel 
to many who witnessed it, and to some who study it seems 
so still. How striking is the special authentication appro- 
priated to this stage of teaching ! This man's conversion, 
education, commission, direction, the Lord Jesus under- 
takes himself. Suddenly he meets him in the way, shines 
forth upon him in a light above the brightness of the sun, 
speaks to him by a voice from heaven, calls him by name, 
convinces, adopts, directs him, commands Ananias con- 
cerning him, and (apparently on repeated occasions) an- 
nounces the use which he has decreed to make of " the 
chosen vessel." The subsequent history is marked by con- 
tinual testimonies of the same divine intervention, given at 
every step which might involve the doubt whether it were 
of Paul or of Christ. When his soul clave to the ministry 
among his own people, he was forced from it by immediate 
command : " It came to pass that, while I prayed in the 
Temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me, 
Make haste and get thee quickly- out of Jerusalem, for they 
will not receive thy testimon}' concerning me : depart, for I 
will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." 1 When he had 
fixed himself as a settled teacher in Antioch, " the Spirit 
said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where- 
unto I have called them." When he would have confined 
himself to the Eastern Continent, and turned, in his con- 
templated circuit, first to Asia, and then to Bithynia, " the 
Spirit suffered him not," and a divine message enabled him 
to " gather assuredly that the Lord had called him" to cany 

x Acts xxii. 17, 18, 21. 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 107 

his Gospel into Europe. Again, in Corinth, the Lord's own 
voice directed him to remain, as in the head-quarters of the 
Grecian world. In Jerusalem, when disheartened and per- 
haps doubtful of the course he had taken, his Master came 
to assure him of the acceptance of his past testimony, and 
announce the purpose that he should bear witness also at 
Rome ; and finally in the shipwreck itself, when all hope 
of being saved was taken away, the declaration of the di- 
vine purpose was made j~et more distinct : " Fear not, Paul, 
thou must be brought Before Caesar." 

Thus does he, who at the commencement of the history 
was seen to pass into the heavens, continue to appear in 
person on the scene. His Apostles act, not only on his past 
commission, but under his present direction. He is not 
wholly concealed by the cloud which had received him out 
of their sight. Now his voice is heard ; now his hand put 
forth ; and now through a sudden rift the brightness of his 
presence shines. And these appearances, voices, and vis- 
ions are not merely incidental favors ; they are, as we have 
seen, apportioned to the moments when they are ivanted, 
moments which determine the course which the Gospel 
takes, and in which a manifestation of divine guidance 
proves the divine guidance of the whole. The ship rushes 
on its way, shunning the breakers, dashing through the bil- 
lows, certain of its track. The crew work it, but do not 
guide it. We can see the strong movements of the helm, 
and from time to time discern a firm hand which holds it. 
No chances, no winds or currents, bear it along at their will, 
but he who has launched it guides it, and he knows the 
course which it takes. 

The divine direction, which is thus exhibited in the book 
of the Acts, is indeed the direction of a course of action 



108 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. IT. 

rather than a course of teaching. It seems to be the guid- 
ance of the movements of the Gospel, rather than of the for- 
mation of the Gospel ; and our present inquiry is concerned 
with the progress of its formation, not with the progress of 
its extension. Yet in the apostolic period these two kinds 
of progress co-exist, and, as it were, cohere ; and the out- 
ward divine direction of the one is offered as surety for the 
inward divine direction of the other. In the earlier period, 
the things which Jesus began to do were the proof and sup- 
port of the things which he began t<5 teach; and in the later 
period, that which he continued to do, in the acts of his 
Apostles, is the pledge that in their doctrine also it was he 
who continued to teach. The inference is natural and is 
plainly intended, — If the introductory historical book mani- 
fests the direction of the Lord in the acts of these men, then 
in the subsequent doctrinal books ive must oivn his direction 
in their teaching. Such an inference would be reasonable, 
if we regarded the teaching as simply an accompaniment of 
the acting ; such an inference is inevitable, when we see 
that the delivery of the truth to the world is the one end 
and object of what is done. 

I must further observe, that the facts recorded in the book 
of Acts are not only a pledge of the divine authority of the 
doctrine in the Epistles, but are also the means through 
which that doctrine was perfected. As the Gospel was 
guided through its conflict with the contemporaneous Juda- 
ism ; as it spread from the Hebrews to the Grecians, to the 
dispersion, to the devout persons, to the heathen beyond ; 
as it passed from Jerusalem to Antioch, to Corinth, to 
Rome ; as it was presented to men first through Peter, and 
then through Paul, — its doctrines were gaining at every 
step in definiteness and fulness. Questions arose which 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 109 

compelled decision ; new states of mind in receivers of truth 
called out, not new principles of truth, but new applications 
of it ; and the growth of Churches and the advance of 
Christian life led to the settlement of points which could 
not have been raised till such a state of things had arisen. 
Under these circumstances, a divine guidance of events was 
only a means for the divine guidance of doctrine. If the 
Lord himself sensibly interfere, to send Peter to Csesarea, 
and to call Paul to bear his name before Gentiles and kings, 
then not only those steps, but the doctrinal results of them, 
are visibly included in the purpose of God and marked with 
the seal of heaven. 

More than this we can hardly ask for from the book of 
Acts, seeing that its province is in the outward scene, and 
its office is to record the march of events. We pass from 
it to the Epistles with the fullest assurance which such evi- 
dence can afford, that the doctrine which they contain is 
given by the Lord Jesus, and that, if it appear an advance 
upon that which he spake with his lips in the days of his 
flesh, that advance has been matured by himself. 

In the Epistles which have for their province, not history 
but doctrine, some direct statements on this subject might 
perhaps be expected. Whether expected or not, they are 
certainly found. The great body of the Epistles are the 
writings of St. Paul. The change in the aspect of their 
doctrine as compared with the Gospel type bears chiefly the 
impress of his mind. It has been called, and may be prop- 
erty called, the Pauline doctrine. Is it also absolutely the 
doctrine of Christ? oris it an individual variety of that 
doctrine, to be regarded (so far as it seems peculiar) as one 
allowable form of the original truth? a token that there 
shall be, a warrant that there may be, various systems of 
10 



110 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

opinion in the Church ? The question in fact is this, Is the 
voice of Paul speaking in the Scriptures to be taken by the 
Church as the voice of Jesus? This question has been an- 
swered by the history in the Acts. We have already recalled 
to our minds the special choice, and call, and commission, 
and direction, which were assigned to the Apostle born out 
of due time ; the confirmation of his proceedings when they 
were most questioned, the divine fellowship in his course 
when it seemed most lonely. But there is 3"et a more direct 
answer than this ; one which his own words supply. 

In his writings in general he is careful to assert the 
reality of his apostleship, as conferred by immediate ap- 
pointment and bearing the seal of God ; and it is observa- 
ble, that the strength of these expressions is proportioned 
to the occasions when the authority of the office involves 
the authority of the doctrine. In the Epistle to the Gala- 
tians, when he has to maintain his gospel as being the gos- 
pel, we find the precision which marks the language of one 
who knows what insinuations he has to negative : " Paul, 
an Apostle, not of men, 1 neither by men, 2 but by 3 Jesus 
Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." 
He declares himself to have been placed, not originally 
from men, nor mediately by any man's ministry, but by the 
very hand of Christ, in the chair from which his instruc- 
tions are delivered, and thus he attaches the authority of 
the commission to the instructions which are given under 
it. But he goes farther, and affirms that those instructions 
themselves were no less immediately received from the 
Lord Jesus, than was the commission under which they 
were delivered. 



avVpui-oiv. 



2 bi avQatLxov. 3 £,,}. 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Ill 

Let me ask your attention to the language which this 
Apostle uses, when speaking of the sources whence the 
matter of his preaching was derived. Take first two 
passages from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. He 
says (ch. xi. 23-25), " I have received of the Lord that 
which also I delivered unto yon, that the Lord Jesus in the 
night in which he was betrayed took bread ; and having 
given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat : this is 
my bod}^, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance 
of me. Likewise also he took the cup, when he had supped, 
saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood : this 
do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." 
Again (ch. xv. 1-7), the same expression, though less full, 
is used in reference to another class of facts : " Brethren, 
I declare unto } t ou the gospel which I preached unto you, 
which also ye have received. . . . For I delivered unto 
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ 
died for onr sins according to the Scriptures ; and that he 
was buried, and that he rose again the third day according 
to the Scriptures ; and that he was seen of Cephas, and 
then of the twelve ; after that, he was seen of above five 
hundred brethren at once ; . . . after that, he was seen 
of James ; then of all the Apostles." Now place by the 
side of these statements two others, taken from the Epistles 
which follow. To the Galatians he says (ch. i. 2, 12), "I 
certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached 
of me is not after man ; for 7" neither received it of man, 1 
neither tvas I taught it, but by revelation 2 of Jesus Christ; " 
and to the Ephesians (iii. 2, 3) he speaks in the same 
strain, though with less emphatic precision : " Ye have 

1 xapa avdpwirov TtapiXaj3ov. 2 61' a-oKaXi^euig. 



112 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, given to me 
to you-ward : how that by revelation lie made known unto 
me the mystery." * 

Between the first and -the second of thes'e pairs of texts a 
very remarkable difference appears. In the first, St. Paul 
seems to represent his own preaching as a link in the chain 
of tradition, " I received," " I delivered," 2 : nor yet as the 
first link, for even the fuller expression, rendered "I re- 
ceived of the Lord," 3 does not so fitly import an immediate 
communication, as a reception of that which had originated 
from the Lord, and was handed down by his command- 
ment. (8) St. Paul, therefore, here appears to % stand, in 
respect to the sources of his information, on the same foot- 
ing as the Evangelist who was associated with him, and to 
speak of the facts of the manifestation of Christ, " even as 
they delivered them unto us, 4 who from the beginning were 
eye-witnesses and ministers of the word." On the other 
hand, in the second pair of statements, the contrary asser- 
tion is made, namely, that his gospel was not received 
from man, nor taught by man, but communicated imme- 
diately hy revelation of the Lord Jesus. 

The state of the case thus brought to light is in exact 
accordance with the view which is here taken of the manner 
in which the Lord perfected his word. The Gospel which 
the Apostles preached was a combination of historic facts 
with their spiritual interpretations ; and the expression, 
" Gospel which I preached," is used by St. Paul in differ- 
ent places with more immediate reference to the one or the 
other of these elements. In the passages from the Epistle 



1 Kara clt;okq7.v\^iv iyvupiai /jloi to fivar'ipiov. 2 Trapf?.a(3ov,irapi6o)Ka. 

3 airb tov KVpiov. 4 KaQ&s TTapihoaav §/it*. 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 113 

to the Corinthians he speaks of the first and fundamental 
part of his preaching, referring expressly to the publication 
of historic facts : — Christ died — he was buried — he rose 
again — he was seen of Cephas, &c. On the same night 
that he was betrayed he took bread — he gave thanks, and 
brake it — he said, Take, eat, &c. ; and we learn that the 
Gospel, as a body of historic fact, was received by the 
Apostle Paul, as by all others who had not seen the Lord 
in the flesh, from those who were the appointed witnesses 
of his visible manifestation. In the two latter passages it 
is otherwise. Not the historic facts, but " the mystery " 
connected with them, is spoken of (in the address to the 
Ephesians) as the subject of the revelation received. And 
the Gospel of which he writes to the Galatians is plainly 
not thought of on its historical, but on its doctrinal side. 
The " other Gospel" into which the converts were " being 
removed" was not another account of the life of Jesus, but 
another set of inferences connected with it. When he 
went up to Jerusalem by revelation, and privately commu- 
nicated to those of reputation " the Gospel which he 
preached among the Gentiles," we are sure that he laid 
before them, not the substance of the history which we 
read in St. Luke's narrative, but the substance of the doc- 
trine which is embodied in his own Epistles. The whole 
argument to the Galatians turns upon the doctrinal element 
of the Gospel. It is of this, therefore, that he so solemnly 
affirms that he was not taught it by agency of man, but re- 
ceived it as direct revelation from the Lord ; and this 
affirmation is made, not merely in respect of the general 
doctrine, but specifically of those parts of it -which it was 
given to him to develop and defend: "the Gospel which 
was preached by me," — " my Gospel" as he elsewhere 
10* 



114 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

calls it, the Gospel under that particular aspect which he 
admits to be the subject of extensive doubt and complaint. 
The part in the progress of doctrine committed to St. Paul 
was to define, to settle, and to carry out to its practical 
consequences the principle of free justification in Christ, 
which (as a principle) was acknowledged and held before 
his voice was heard ; and we learn from his own state- 
ments, that, for this special work, not only a. special com- 
mission, but a special revelation was given him by the 
Lord Jesus, so as to clear and settle his own mind on 
those points on which he was sent to clear and settle the 
minds of others. In this wa} r he was a minister and a wit- 
ness, not of those things which he had heard from others, 
nor of those things which he had only thought out for him- 
self, but of those things which his Lord had showed him in 
personal visits and distinct communications, according to 
the announcement made at the first commencement of this 
peculiar intercourse, "I have appeared unto thee for this 
purpose, to make thee a miuister and a witness, both of 
those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in 
the which I iciil appear unto thee." * No ! he was not only 
an inspired teacher adorned with the title of Apostle ; he 
was an Apostle in the strictest sense of the word, a com- 
missioned witness to others of direct communications of 
Jesus Christ to himself; one appointed to confirm to others 
the salvation which, in his own hearing, had begun to be 
spoken by the Lord. 

The appearances and revelations vouchsafed to the 
Apostle of the Gentiles are thus conspicuously seen to con- 
nect themselves with the agency assigned to him in the 

1 Acts XXVI. 16. wv re t7<^$ if rt iibQiqaQfiai cot. 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 115 

progress of doctrine ; and the more carefully we examine 
his history and weigh his language, the more sensibly do 
we feel ourselves in the presence of that great fact, on the 
realit}^ of which the faith of succeeding ages has reposed, 
namely, the continued personal administration of the Lord 
Jesus in founding his Church and perfecting his word. 

This administration was manifested, as we have seen, by 
selection of agents, direction of events, angelic messages, 
visits in visions, special instructions, and distinct revela- 
tions ; 3'et these numerous interventions do not constitute 
the entire sj'stem of divine guidance, or even the chief part 
of it, but are rather to be regarded as additions to the nor- 
mal method of administration which they serve both to 
assist and authenticate. 

2. The normal guidance of the Apostles by their Lord 
was not occasional, but habitual, not through separate in- 
terventions, but through the Holy Ghost dwelling in them. 
So the promise ran that it should be ; and so in fact 
it was. 

The Day of Pentecost is the opening of the second period 
of the New Testament dispensation. It stands alone, as 
does the daj r which now we call Christmas : the one the 
birthday of the Lord, the other the birthday of his Church ; 
the one proclaimed by praises sung by hosts in heaven, 
the other by praises uttered in the various tongues of 
earth. That change is significant : for now the Spirit 
conve3 T s the true knowledge of the wonderful works of God 
into the recesses of the human heart. A dispensation is 
begun, in which the mind of God has entered into myste- 
rious combination with the mind of man, and henceforth 
the revealing light shines, not from without, but from 
within. 



116 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

" O God, who at this time diclst teach the hearts of thy 
faithful people by the sending to them the light of thy 
Holy Spirit ! " So speaks the Collect for Whitsunday ; 
and, in so speaking, seizes at once the central idea of the 
event. That idea is often imperfectly apprehended ; for in 
the dispensation of the Spirit there is so much that is 
visible on its surface, that our thoughts are apt to be 
arrested before they penetrate to its centre. Tongues and 
prophecies, and signs and wonders, gifts of the Holy Ghost 
dispensed according to his will, are visible results of the 
event, and they witness to the Gospel and clear its way. 
Below these superadded faculties, we are conscious of a 
mighty influence in the region of the emotions. We feel 
the presence of that comfort and strength, of that glow and 
fervor and j«>y. by which we see the men animated in the 
exercise of their new powers, and hear them speak with 
tongues and magnify God. But we must go further. The 
new powers seem as it were born from the new impulses; 
but whence do the new impulses proceed? Is there not a 
cause for these? Does the Holy Spirit limit his entrance 
into man to the region of emotion, which is but the surface 
of our nature, without reaching those inner springs from 
which, according to the laws of that nature, the emotions 
should themselves be quickened ! No ! be sure that the 
Holy Ghost has occupied the heart and centre of our being, 
and that, as the tongues are given as a vent for the fervor 
of emotion, so the fervor of emotion has its own origin in 
a sudden access of intellectual light. New apprehensions 
of truth, new views of things, which those thus visited had 
seen but had not understood, now burst in a moment on 
their minds, and from that moment continued to grow more 
distinct and more extended before their now enlightened 



LECT. IV. T HE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 117 

eye. God at that time not only stirred, but taught, the 
hearts of his faithful people, and sent to them not only the 
warmth but " the ligJit" of his Holy Spirit. 

If this had not been so, what fulfilment would there have 
been of those promises of the Lord which we lately recalled 
to mind, respecting the nature and effect of the gift which 
was to follow his departure ? He told his Apostles that 
they should "receive power," and he told them that they 
should receive " comfort," but we have seen that that on 
which he chiefly dwelt was the light of knowledge which 
should rise upon their minds. " In that day ye shall 
know ; " " he shall bring all things to your remembrance ;" 
"he shall teach you all things ; " " he shall guide you into 
all truth ; " "he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto 
you." These are plain assertions. It is enough that they 
were made by him who gave the gift, and certainly knew 
how to describe it. The rehearsal of these assertions be- 
longed to the last stage of our inquiry ; the evidence of 
their fulfilment is the thing before us now. 

Those to whom these promises are given exhibit at the 
time a dimness of apprehension, a perplexity and disorder 
of thought, an incapacity to understand the things which 
they hear and see, which we, enlightened from the light 
which they afterwards obtained, most unreasonably count 
to be wonderful. It could not have been otherwise with 
the strongest and most penetrating intellects. But the fact 
of their condition of mind is undoubted, whether we ascribe 
it to personal deficiency or to the necessit}' of the case. 

They were dealt with accordingly. From the moment 
when they saw their Lord ascend, the}" were in full posses- 
sion of all the external facts of which they were appointed 
to bear witness. But they were not in possession of the 



118 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

spiritual meaning, relations, and consequences of those 
facts, and therefore the hour of their testimony was not 
come, and the interval was passed not in preaching but in 
prayer. As soon as the promise is fulfilled they lift up 
their voice and speak. Never were men so changed. Who 
does not note the accession of boldness, faithfulness, and 
fervor ! But these are not separated and unsupported gifts. 
They manifestly have their origin in the certainty of assur- 
ance and intensity of conviction. The " boldness " l pro- 
ceeds from " a full assurance ;" 2 according as it is written, 
" I believed and therefore have I spoken, these also believe 
and therefore speak." Their clear, firm testimony rises in a 
moment before the world, never hesitating or wavering, 
never to sink or change again, only manifesting more fully, 
as time advances, the largeness of its compass and the defi- 
niteness of its announcements. Ever after they speak as 
men would do who were conscious of a ground of certainty 
which could not be questioned, who conld say that things 
" seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them ; " 3 that their 
word was " not the word of man but the word of God ;" 4 
that it was "the Spirit that bore witness;" 5 that they 
" preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven;" that "things which eye had not seen nor ear 
heard, and which had not entered into the heart of man, had 
been revealed to them b} T the Spirit, which searcheth the 
deep things of God;" that they "had received, not the 
spirit which is of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, 
that they might know the tilings which are freely given of 

1 ~ronr,cia. 2 irlrjpoipooia. 

3 Acts xv. 28. 4 1 Thess. ii. 13. 

5 1 John v. 6. 6 1 Pet. i. 12. 






LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 119 

God ; " that they " spoke these things, not in words which 
man's wisdom taught, but which the Holy Ghost taught ; " 
and that they " could be judged of no man," because " none 
knew the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, and the} r 
had the mind of Christ." 1 It is enough. The three testi- 
monies concur — the testimony of him who gave the Spirit, 
the testimony of those who received it, and the testimony 
of the facts which ensued on its reception. 

Are we then at a loss to know what was the nature of the 
gift which the Holy Spirit brought for the purposes of the 
apostolic work? Certainly it was vast and various — "a 
sevenfold gift ; " but its most essential part lay not in 
tongues and powers which witnessed to the Gospel, not in 
the fervor and boldness which preached it, rather it zvas the 
Gospel itself. 

The Gospel which the Apostles preached consisted of two 
elements, a testimony of external facts which fell within the 
region of the senses, and a testimony of the virtue of those 
facts in the predestined government of God, and of the con- 
sequences of them in the spiritual history of men, neither 
of which was it possible for the senses to certif}^. For the 
first testimony they needed but a clear and faithful memory. 
For the second also the same faculty would suffice, but only 
up to a certain point ; namely, as far as they had received 
and understood the exposition of transcendental truth from 
the lips of the Lord Jesus. But we have seen that the sal- 
vation Only began to be spoken by the Lord, and that he 
himself asserted that it would not be fully revealed by him, 
or understood by them, until the Spirit came. If the Spirit 
on his coming did not complete that revelation, then the 

1 1 Cor. ii. 9-16. 



120 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

Gospel which the Apostles preached must have been, in 
some of its most important features, partly a word of God 
and parti} 7 a word of man. Their witness of the death, and 
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus would demand an un- 
qualified acceptance, but their representation of the sacrifi- 
cial character and atoning merits of the death, of the life- 
giving power of the resurrection, and of the meditorial office 
in heaven , would be the result of their own inferences from 
the words which they had gleaned from their Lord ; and, 
instead of being judged of no man, they would be judged of 
eveiy man who could take a different view of the words 
which they repeated from that which they had taken them- 
selves. (t)) Thus the whole s3-stem of their doctrine would 
stand (like the image in the dream) on feet part of iron 
and part of clay, and would not wait long for the hour of 
its overthrow. But he who, in the face of all which has been 
now recalled to mind, should still treat their doctrine in this 
light, would plainly accuse of falsehood, not only the men, 
but their Lord himself; who, if he spoke true when he gave 
them the Spirit, led them thereby " into all the truth." The 
guarantees for this fact could hardly have been plainer or 
stronger than they are. We thank God that he has pro- 
vided them, and we pass into the second stage of New Tes- 
tament teaching with adequate assurances that he who be- 
fore taught us on earth, now teaches us from heaven, and 
that we still "hear him and are taught in Mm." 

II. We have not then changed our teacher, but he has 
changed his method: and I have now to point out the rea- 
sons of the change, by showing that it was fitted to conduct 
the advance of doctrine from the point at which it had then 
arrived. 

It may be said that the change was simply a matter of 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 121 

necessity, because he who had spoken with his lips was now 
to be received up into glory, and could no longer talk with 
his servants on earth. Bat though the change might be 
necessary, it was also "expedient" — expedient for them. 
So he represents it to his mourning and perplexed disciples, 
and adds the support of a strong asseveration. " Never- 
theless I tell you the truth, it is good for you that I go 
away ; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come 
unto you." 1 The change then takes place as an advantage 
to those who are subjected to it. For them a stage of reve- 
lation hi?s come which demands a method of teaching more 
penetrating and internal than that which they had till then 
enjoyed. 

It is in this character that the superiority of the later 
method consists, as is pointed out by the plain distinction, 
" He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Here are 
two methods appropriated to the two stages of New Testa- 
ment teaching : and it is clear as day that the second is an 
advance upon the first. In the one, the teaching power is 
separated from, and external to, the mind which is being 
taught ; in the other, it is interfused and commingled with 
it. The words, in the one, are divine announcements fitted 
to form the apprehensions of man ; the words, in the other, 
are expressions of human apprehensions already formed 
under the divine agency. The teaching power has thus 
changed its method, in order to meet the exigencies of a 
more difficult stage of instruction. 

The facts are finished when Jesus is glorified ; the mani- 
festation of the Son of God is perfect, the redemption is 

1 Johnxvi. 7. 
11 



122 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

accomplished, and the conditions of human salvation are 
complete. 

The histoiy must now be treated as a whole, of which the 
plan and purpose have become apparent. The time is come 
for the full interpretation of the facts, of their effects in the 
world of spirit, and of their results in human consciousness. 

A doctrine then is needed, which shall sum up the whole 
bearing of the manifestation of Christ, which shall throw a 
full light on its spiritual effects, and which shall guide the 
minds of men in their application of it to themselves. Such 
a doctrine might be given from God in one of two ways : 
b} r voices from heaven, declaring what view men ought to 
take of the history which had passed before them, and what 
their faith and feelings ought to be concerning it ; or Iry 
voices from men themselves, expressing the view which they 
did take, and the faith and feelings which were actually in 
their hearts. In the one case, we should have Apostles, who 
would be to us the messengers of God, only while they tes- 
tified that they had received such and such revelations, and 
while they recited those revelations to us word for word ; 
but all their other words would come to us on their own 
merits, as simply the words of holy and enlightened men. 
In the other case, we should have Apostles, whose represen- 
tations of their own view of all which they had heard and 
seen, whose expositions of their own convictions and feel- 
ings, and of the processes of their own thoughts concerning 
the things of Christ, would be to us so many revelations 
from God of what he intended to be the result of the mani- 
festation of his Son in human hearts. 

"Who does not see that this kind of teaching would ex- 
ceed the other in completeness and effectiveness ? It would 
be more complete ; for we should thus have the word pre- 



LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 123 

sented to us in the final form which it was meant to take, 
that, namely, of a word dwelling in us — a divine announce- 
ment changed already into a human experience. It would 
be more effective ; inasmuch as example is more so than 
precept, and the same voice, being to us both the voice 
of God and the voice of man, would affect our hearts with 
the double power of certainty and sympathy. Such a 
method of teaching could only be possible under some 
S3 T stem of divine action which should fuse into one the 
thoughts of God and the thoughts of man ; and this was 
effected by the gift of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles for 
the work whereto they were called. 

I say for the ivork whereto they ivere called, for the same 
Spirit is diverse in operation, and divides to every man 
severally as he will. When the Church was anointed 
from above, the manifestation of the Spirit pervaded her 
whole frame, " like the precious ointment on the head, 
which ran down upon the beard, even upon Aaron's beard, 
and went down to the skirts of his garments." Even " on 
the servants and on the handmaids " did the Lord pour out 
of his Spirit, and the supernatural presence was disclosed 
in a vast scale of various gifts, ranging from that which 
was intense and supreme to that which was superficial and 
ancillary. But we speak now of that which was supreme. 
u First Apostles." The ointment is poured first upon the 
head ; and from thence the glittering drops descend upon 
the raiment. All the members have not the same office : — 
Are all apostles? No! the authorities, standards, and 
types of truth are so by direct commission, and the gift 
which the3 r receive is one which makes them so indeed. 
As the office, so is the gift. An incommunicable office has 
an incommunicable gift. An office which is to be solitary 



124 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

and supreme in the Church forever has a gift adequate to 
secure the implicit confidence of long-descending ages. 

Voices ma} 7 be heard among us now which tend to im- 
pair that confidence ; complaints of the distinctive use of 
the word " inspiration," as applied to the Scripture writers, 
assertions that " the Scriptures are before, and above all 
things, the voice of the congregation." 

On what do these complaints and assertions rest? On 
the true conviction, that, in all the Church, and in all ages, 
there is the presence of the same Spirit. Yes ! and on the 
false assumption, that the gifts of the Spirit are to all the 
same gifts. There is no principle in the Bible more clear, 
than that the gifts of the Spirit are diverse, and are, in 
character and proportion, adapted to the works which God 
assigns, and appropriated to the offices which he creates. 
Now it is certainty one thing to be a member, and another 
thing to be a founder, of the church. It is one thing to 
receive or to propagate the truth, and another to deliver it 
with the authority of God, and to certify it to the world 
forever. 

The same clear view of the way of salvation, and of the 
unsearchable riches of Christ, which gladdened the soul of 
St. Paul, might gladden the soul of one who heard his 
words, and may now gladden the soul of one who reads 
them. For both there is the same Spirit and the same 
testimony ; but the Spirit is given to the one, that he may 
originate that testimony ; to the other, that he ma} 7 receive 
it. There is a difference between being builded into the 
holy temple, which is the habitation of God through the 
Spirit, and being constituted a foundation, on which the 
future building is to rise at first and to rest forever. Such 
was the separate function of the Apostles of the Lord and 






LECT. IV. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 125 

Saviour, a function which they shared with the special 
messengers of God who went before them, and even with 
their Lord himself. "Ye are built," said they to their 
brethren, — " Ye are built on the foundation of the Apos- 
tles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner-stone." 1 The corner-stone is but part of the founda- 
tion, though it be the first and the chief part ; and this 
consolidation of the corner-stone with the adjacent founda- 
tions, as one basement to sustain the building, exhibits in 
the plainest manner the fact, that the Church, in 7'espect of 
its faith, rests upon a testimony which was delivered, partly 
by Jesus Christ in person, and partly by the agents whom 
for that purpose he ordained. Their inspiration as be- 
lievers associates them with the whole Church ; their 
inspiration as teachers unites them only with their Lord. 

The consciousness of this position appears in the records 
of their preaching, and breathes through all their writings 
a lofty and unyielding authority. They speak as men 
having the Spirit to those to whom it is also given, yet as 
men empowered to deliver the truth which the others were 
only enabled to receive. St. Paul addresses himself to 
u those that are spiritual," but he shows them that it is he, 
and not the}', who is " put in trust with the Gospel," and 
that the word which he utters is one to which they can add 
nothing, and in which the} 7 can change nothing. St. John 
exhorts those " who have an unction from the Holy One," 
but as having himself a kind of anointing in which they 
do not share, whereby he delivers the " message," and the 
" witness," and the "commandment," which they on their 
part recognize and accept. No ! the voice that sounds 



3 Eph. ii. 20. 
11* 



126 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. IV. 

from these pages is not the voice of the congregation, but 
the voice of those who founded it by the will of God ; and 
that character the congregation itself has asserted for the 
word in all ages. The written word has been the canon of 
the Church, because it was a voice which came to it, not 
because it was a voice which proceeded from it. (10) 

To us at this day this word has come ; and to us at this 
day the anointing from the Holy One flows down. For 
you, for me (thank God ! ) the teaching of the Spirit 
remains. It remains for the servants and the handmaids : 
and many an obscure and lowly brother in the streets 
around us can say for himself, as truly as St. Paul could 
say, " I have received the Spirit that is of God, that I may 
know the things which are freely given to me of God." 
But one who thus speaks can know that his convictions are 
really the teaching of the Spirit of God only in so far as 
they correspond with the eternal tj-pes of truth, which 
ascertain to us what the teaching of the Spirit is. Now, 
as in those apostolic days, he which is spiritual can show 
that he is so only " by acknowledging that the things 
which" those appointed teachers "wrote to us are the 
commandments of the Lord ; " for the gift of the Holy 
Ghost to others is not a gift whereby they originate the 
knowledge of new truths, but a gift whereby they recog- 
nize and apprehend the old unchanging mystery, still 
receiving afresh the one revelation of Christ, ever approach- 
ing, never surpassing the comprehensive but immovable 
boundaries of the faith once delivered to the saints. This 
is the gift, the only gift, which we desire for our Church 
and for ourselves ; for it is one which makes the written 
word a living word, which fills a Church with joy, and seals 
a soul for glory. 



LECTUKE V. 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

THEY CEASED NOT TO TEACH AND PREACH JESUS CHRIST. — Ads V. 42. 

Jesus Chkist is gone up into glory, and the Holy Ghost 
has come down into men: and we have seen that these 
events are represented to us, not as closing the course of 
revelation, but as opening a new stage of it. The ques- 
tions which met us on the threshold have been answered, 
and we go forward with the full assurance that our first 
teacher is our teacher still, and that his second method of 
instruction is an advance upon the first. 

We have now to ask, first, What change appears in the 
aspect of the doctrine 9 and then, What is the plan on which 
it continues to advance ? 

For a reply to these questions I address nry self to that 
introductory booli which gives us the external history of 
this part of the dispensation of truth. It is not the func- 
tion of a historical record to work out expositions of doc- 
trine, but such a book may be expected to present the 
general character which the doctrine bore, and to clear to 
our view the agencies and the stagesby which it was matured. 
This is precisely what is done in the book of Acts. It is 
the purpose of the book to do it ; a purpose which ought to 
be more fully recognized than it is. 

There are works which are done with so natural and 
graceful a facility, that it seems to the superficial observer 
as if any one could have done them, or as if he who did 

127 



128 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

them was only guided by casual impulse, while a more 
careful student will perceive that singular gifts were neces- 
sary to produce the results which seem so easy, and that a 
comprehensive design and an accurate judgment presided 
over arrangements which appear fortuitous. Such a work 
is the Acts of the Apostles. In a narrative all alive with 
graphic details, and written in a st}de of animated sim- 
plicity and natural ease, it carries us through a period of 
human history of incalculable interest and importance : 
one in which the effects of the manifestation of the Son of 
God were developed and tested ; in which the life which he 
had introduced among men disclosed its nature and power, 
and the truth which he had left commenced its struggles 
and conquests ; in which the Christian Church was consti- 
tuted, gradually detached from its Jewish integuments, 
and brought to the consciousness of its freedom and catho- 
licity ; in which it verified its credentials, proved its arms, 
recognized its destinies, and commenced its victories ; in 
which impulses were given which would never cease to 
vibrate and precedents were established to which distant 
ages would refer ; in which solemn and exciting scenes, 
marvels and miracles, saintly and heroic characters, their 
labors, their conflicts, their sufferings, their journeyings, 
their collisions with all classes of men, seem to force upon 
the historian a confusing multiplicity of materials. Yet 
through all this he makes his way straight in one direction, 
as a man guided b} T that instinct of selection which belongs 
to the ruling presence of a definite purpose. It is just this 
definiteness of purpose which is apt to pass unobserved. 
It is nowhere announced, and the unconstrained freedom of 
manner and easy inartificial stj'le suggest no thought of it. 
We seem sometimes to be reading a collection of anecdotes 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 129 

or personal memoirs of certain Apostles, and some critics 
have dealt with the book as if indeed it were but a chance 
collection of stories with which the author had happened to 
become acquainted, or as if a fragment of the acts of St. 
Peter had been prefixed to a journal of the travels of 
St. Paul. 

But we know St. Luke's intelligent, inquiring mind, his 
opportunities of information, his " perfect understanding 
of all things from the very first," his personal intercourse 
with those " who from the beginning had been eye-witnesses 
and ministers of the word." We cannot for a moment 
suppose that his acquaintance with the " Acts of the Apos- 
tles " was limited to the facts recorded in the book ; that 
he knew nothing of the proceedings of John or James, or 
of the manifold movements and events which were going 
on by the side of those which he has related. In fact, there 
is not a book upon earth in which the principle of inten- 
tional selection is more evident to a careful observer. 
There is indeed no reason given why one speech is re- 
ported and one event related at length, in preference to 
others which are passed over or slightly touched ; yet 
when we reach the conclusion we see the reasons in the 
result. We find that by an undeviatiug course we have 
followed the development of the true idea of the Church of 
Christ, in its relations first to the Jewish system, out of 
which it emerges, and then to the great world, to which it 
opens itself. When the words and deeds of Philip or 
Stephen, of Peter or Paul, are implicated with this progress 
of things, we find ourselves in their company, but when we 
part from St. Peter without notice of his after-course, when 
we leave St. Paul abruptly at the commencement of his two 
years in Rome, we are given to understand that we have been 



130 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE, LECT. V. 

reading, not their personal memoirs, but a higher history, 
which certain portions of their careers serve to embody or 
to illustrate. Even when the book is considered by itself, 
the unity and completeness of the result is plain ; but 
when we look at it in its place in Scripture, observe its 
function there, and its relation to the books which follow, 
we see most clearly the definite purpose with which it 
places us and keeps us in that particular line of historical 
fact which involves the progress of doctrine. 

It may be said that this is claiming too much ; for thai, 
whatever amount of design may be attributed to the author 
of the " Acts," we cannot ascribe to him the prophetic pur- 
pose of fitting his book to its present place in Scripture. 
No, certainly not to him ; but the Church has ever held 
that another Mind presided over what was written in 
these pages, a Mind which purposed that we should have a 
Bible, and which, guiding the production of its component 
parts, has made it what it is. 

I speak in accordance with this view of Scripture when 
I ask, What is the office which the book of Acts fulfils in 
the evolution of doctrine in the New Testament? 

For a reply to this question I would point to three results 
which the book unquestionabl} T yields. 

1. It places in the clearest light the divine authority of 
the doctrine given during the period which it covers, as a 
doctrine delivered by those who, for that particular pur- 
pose, were filled with the Holy Ghost, and were agents of 
th'e personal administration of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
This, the first and most important part of the office of the 
book, has been considered in the last Lecture. 

2. It represents the general character of the doctrine 
delivered by the Apostles to the world. 



LECT. Y. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 131 

3. It traces the steps of external history through which the 
doctrine was matured. 

These are the parts of its office on which I have now to 
dwell. 

I. The general character of the doctrine as it appears in 
the Acts of the Apostles is presented in the words of the 
text, " They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus the 
Christ." 1 Similar expressions continually recur: "he 
preached Christ unto them;" 2 " he preached unto him 
Jesus;" 3 "he preached Christ in the S} T nagogues ; " 4 
they " spake unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus ; " 5 
" he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." 6 No 
such announcements as these are heard in the Gospels. 
The preaching spoken of there is not of the person but of 
the kingdom. Jesus comes "preaching the kingdom of 
God;" 7 "preaching the Gospel of the kingdom;" 8 and 
his parables and common teaching are not prominently 
about himself, but about "the kingdom of heaven." So 
also his disciples are sent out " to preach the kingdom of 
God," and are even charged to " tell no man that he was 
Jesus the Christ," 9 and are forbidden to publish the mani- 
festation of the fact " until the Son of Man be risen again 
from the dead." 10 And because of the absence of this per- 
sonal proclamation by himself or his servants, we find John 
the Baptist troubled and perplexed, and sending a deputa- 
tion of his followers in the hope of extracting such a pub- 
lic declaration ; and the multitude at a later time complain. 

1 ovk eiravov-o dtduonovreg koX evayyeXL^ofievoL 'Itjgovv tov JLpioTov. 

2 Acts viii. 5. 3 Ibid. 35. 4 Ibid. ix. 20. 
5 Acts xi. 20. 6 Ibid. xvii. 18. 7 Luke ix. 2. 

8 Matt. iv. 28, and Mark i. 14. 9 Matt. xvi. 20. 

10 Matt. xvii. 9. 



132 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

"How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the 
Christ, tell us plainly ; " 1 and the High Priest, at the very 
last, unable to obtain testimony to such a public claim, is 
compelled to resort to adjuration — "Art thou the Christ, 
the Son of the Blessed?" 2 

The change in the ke} T -note of the preacltlng is very sig- 
nificant. Things had been tending towards it. The pre- 
sentation of Christ to men had been going forward, and the 
scheme on which it is set before us in the Gospel collection 
marks the gradual manner in which the e} T e, looking for the 
kingdom, had come to be fixed upon the person. In the 
teaching of the first Gospel the idea of the kingdom, in that 
of the last the idea of the person, is predominant. In the 
Acts the two expressions are sometimes united, as when the 
Samaritans "believed Philip preaching the things concern- 
ing the kingdom of God and the name of the Lord Jesus : " 3 
and yet again, with more evident purpose, in the end of the 
book, where Paul's exposition to the Jews at Rome stands 
as the last appeal to that people — "To whom he ex- 
pounded, testifying the kingdom of God and persuading 
them concerning Jesus : " and yet again in the closing verse, 
which describes the two } T ears' continuous ministry by the 
words "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those 
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ." 4 Evidently 

1 John x. 24. - Mark xiv. Gl. 3 Acts viii. 12. 

4 Acts xxviii. 23, 31. ALa/iaprvpoLtevoc rrjv (3aat?,eiav tov Qeov, Tceiduv 
je avrovg tu Tzepl tov 'Itjgov. (ver 23.) Krjpvoauv rqv [3aaiAelav tov Qtov, 
kcu didaoh-uv tu Kepi tov Kvpiov 'Irjaov. (ver. 31.) Compare this sum- 
mary of the apostolic teaching at the end of the book with the 
summary of the last teaching of Jesus at its beginning: 6i* rjjiepCyv 
reaaapcLKOVTa o-Tavofievog avTolg kcu 71yav tu -Kept Trjg fiaaCkdaq tov Qeov 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 133 

on purpose are the two expressions combined in this final 
summary, in order to show that the preaching of the king- 
dom and the preaching of Christ are one : that the original 
proclamation has not ceased, but that in Christ Jesus the 
thing proclaimed is no longer a vague and future hope, but 
a distinct and present fact. In the conjunction of these 
words the progress of doctrine appears. All is founded 
upon the old Jewish expectation of a kingdom of God ; but 
it is now explained how that expectation is fulfilled in the 
person of Jesus ; and the account of its realization con- 
sists in the unfolding of the truth concerning him, " the 
things concerning Jesus." 1 The manifestation of Christ 
being finished, the kingdom is already begun. Those who 
receive Mm enter into it. Having overcome the sharpness 
of death, he has opened the kingdom of heaven to all be- 
lievers. Those, therefore, who were once to " tell no man 
that he was Christ," are now to make " all the house of 
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, 
whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ ; " yea, they 
are to proclaim that fact to every nation under heaven. 

It is, I apprehend, by this change in the character of the 
preaching, that we are to explain the surprising difference 
in the effect of the preaching, as seen in the Gospels and in 
the Acts. For some three j^ears, probably, did Jesus preach 
in the Temple, in synagogues, in houses, on the seashore, 
and by the wayside ; yet it is obviously but a scanty band 
of professed believers whom he leaves upon the earth, and 
these too appear possessed but with a dubious and uncer- 

" during forty days appearing to them and speaking the things 
concerning the kingdom of God." 
1 tu, Trepl tov 'Inoov. 
12 



134 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

tain faith. On occasion of an important gathering in Jeru- 
salem, " the number of names together were about an hun- 
dred and twenty." x The largest number we ever hear of 
is that mentioned by St. Paul — "above five hundred breth- 
ren at once ; " 2 and of these, according to St. Matthew, 
" some doubted." 3 But a few days later Peter lifts up his 
voice, and " the same day there were added unto them 
about three thousand souls." 4 And so the word grows and 
multiplies, till we hear of " a great company of priests 
obedient to the faith," 5 and "many thousands 6 of Jews 
which believe ;" 7 besides the suddenly-rising, rapidly-grow- 
ing Churches in all parts of the Gentile world. Men have 
sometimes expressed their wonder at this difference in the 
effect of the Lord's own preaching and of that of his disci- 
ples ; and the}' have been fain to ascribe it to the outpour- 
ing of the Spirit, which wrought a .sudden change in the 
hearts of the hearers. But we have no encouragement to 
suppose that the three thousand who believed on the da} r of 
Pentecost received any special gift of the Spirit (such as 
originated on that day) until after the}' believed. This was 
promised b} r the Apostle as a gift, not preceding, but ensu- 
ing on their baptism. " Repent," said he, " and be bap- 
tized every one of you for the remission of sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." No ! It is not 
on the hearers, but on the preachers that the mighty influ- 
ence is said to have come. The true reason for the change 
in the effect of the doctrine is found in the change which 
had passed upon the doctrine itself, when " the Spirit of 
truth was come" to fulfil the prediction, " He shall glorify 

1 Acts i. 15. 2 1 Cor. xv. 6. 3 Matt, xxviii. 17. 

4 Acts ii. 41. 5 Ibid. vi. 7. 6 Literally, myriads. 

7 Acts xxi. 20. 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 135 

me." Christ was not preached before he suffered ; after he 
was glorified he was. In the former period, he and his fol- 
lowers " preached the kingdom of God ; " in the latter, 
" they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Thus 
the great change in the effect of the preaching, which might 
seem at first sight to derogate from his gloiy, is, on further 
consideration, seen to enhance it. Only when it is possible 
freely and fully to publish the one " name under heaven 
given among men, whereby they must be saved," are their 
consciences thoroughly roused and their trust decisively 
secured. So has it been, and so shall it be in the Church 
forever. Oh, that the apostolic lesson may still have its 
fruit amongst ourselves ! that our evangelists may still 
know where their power lies ! and especially that it ma}' be 
said of all who go forth to the work from this place, "They 
ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ ! " 

2. But now comes the question, What was this preaching 
of Christ? Some have paraphrased it as the preaching of 
his doctrine, of the holy lessons which he taught. Some, 
again, as the setting forth of his holy character, the beauty 
of his life, and the attraction of his love. But if this were 
the main idea of preaching Christ, then certainly the rela- 
tive effect of his own teaching and of that of his disciples 
ought to have been just the reverse of what it was ; for the 
actual hearing of the gracious words which proceeded out 
of his mouth, and the actual sight of his holiness and love, 
must be supposed more effectual than the mere account of 
them by others. Then Jesus Christ ought to have gathered 
the thousands and his disciples the hundreds ; and the faith 
inspired in the first period ought to have been more decided 
and intense than that awakened in the second. But the 
contrary was the case. There was then something in the 



136 THE PKOGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

later preaching which was not present in the earlier. Was 
it that the Messiahship of Jesus was then openly proclaimed, 
which men had before been left to infer from the things 
which they heard and saw ? It was this — but more than 
this. Not only was the fact of the Messiahship proclaimed, 
but the nature of it was explained. The Christ who was 
now proclaimed was one who had died and risen again, and 
whom the heavens had received till the time of the restitu- 
tion of all things. Iu these three facts the manifestation 
of the Son of God had culminated, and in them the true 
diameter of his mission had appeared. The old carnal 
thoughts of it had been left in his grave, and could never 
rise from it again. It was the "Prince of life " who had 
risen from the dead ; it was the " King of glory " who had 
passed into the heavens, And no less did these facts de- 
clare the spiritual consequences of his manifestation ; since 
they carried with them the implication of those three cor- 
responding gifts, which we celebrate forevermore, saying 
with solemn joy, *' I believe . . . the forgiveness of sins, 
the resurrection of the bod}', and the life everlasting." 

Towards these topics the preaching of Christ in the Acts 
of the Apostles continually turns. Observe how the first 
and present blessing (the forgiveness of sins) is ever ad- 
duced, as the result of the wondrous history which the 
chosen witnesses rehearse. "When they have told of the 
cross and passion, it is in this consequence flowing from it 
unto men that their sermons culminate and close. "Him 
hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give re- 
pentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins ; " 1 " Repent and 
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, 

1 Acts v. 31. 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 137 

for the remission of sins ; " * " Repent ye therefore and be 
converted, that your sins maybe blotted out;" 2 "Be it 
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through 
this man is preached unto 3^011 the forgiveness of sins ; arid by 
him all that believe are justified from all things from which 
ye could not be justified by the law of Moses ; " 3 u To him 
give all the prophets witness, that through his name whoso- 
ever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins." 4 

Such is the burden of the apostolical preaching, as ex- 
hibited in the rapid sketches and brief summaries given in 
this book. It is a doctrine of " redemption by his blood, 
even the forgiveness of sins," conveying, through the sim- 
ple act of faith, a present cleansing to the conscience, as 
the necessary qualification for the glory which is to follow. 

Then, in the next place, that glory is shown to arise 
from the resurrection of Jesus, as the preparation for it does 
from his sufferiugs. I need not remind you of the " great 
power " with which, from one end of the book to the other, 
u the Apostles give witness of the resurrection of the Lord 
Jesus." Everywhere they preach a " Christ that died, yea, 
rather, that is risen again." This event is presented by 
them not simply as the seal of his teaching, or more gener- 
ally (to use the poor and shrunken phrase of later times) as 
the proof of his divine mission, but as itself the cause and 
the commencement of that new world and eternal life which 
was consciously " the hope of Israel," and unconsciously 
the hope of man. Turn especially to the latter part of the 
book, and study the position taken by St. Paul in the last 
crisis of his controversy with the Jews. See how he falls 

1 Acts ii. 38. 2 Ibid. iii. 19. 

3 Ibid. xiii. 38, 39. 4 Ibid. x. 43. 



138 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeOT. V. 

back upon the resurrection of Christ as involving the reali- 
zation of the hopes of his people and the fulfilment of all 
the promises of God. Some have treated as a mere expe- 
dient for his own deliverance at the moment that one voice 
which he cried in the Council, " Men and brethren, I am a 
Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee ; of the hope and resurrec- 
tion of the dead I am called in question." But he needed 
no expedient, for he was then in Roman hands and under 
Roman protection. It was no pretence to serve a turn ; it 
was the genuine language of his heart. In all his other 
speeches at this crisis the same idea reigns predominant. 
"I stand and am judged for the hope of the prom^e made 
of God unto our fathers : unto which promise our twelve 
tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come: 
for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the 
Jews. Why is it judged by you a thing incredible if God 
raises the dead?" It is the self-same sound which we heard 
in the first discourse given us from his lips, when he cried 
to the Jews of the Pisidian Antioch, "Xow we declare unto 
you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto 
the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their chil- 
dren, in that he hath raised up Jesus again." 

And when we read his mind upon this subject more fully 
in 1 Cor. xv., and indeed in the whole of his writings, we 
see how truly the resurrection of Christ did, in his view, 
include the realization of all the hopes with which the old 
covenant was pregnant ; how entirely it was to him the 
cause and actual commencement, as well as the pledge and 
promise, of the resurrection and the life to man. 

But I must not go further into this subject. I had only 
to indicate that the general character of the doctrine which 
appears in the Acts of the Apostles is an advance upon that 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 139 

delivered in the Gospels. I say that it is so, inasmuch as 
it does more than merely testify to the facts of the mani- 
festation of Christ, as (to use an imperfect illustration) the 
summing up of a judge is an advance upon the evidence on 
which it is founded, since it adds to the rehearsal of that 
evidence the selection of its critical points, the representa- 
tion of their force and bearing, and the intimation of the 
conclusions to which they lead. Thus does the preaching 
of the Apostles sum up the result of all that the Gospels 
have disclosed, by the direct preaching of Jesus to men's 
souls, and by preaching him especially as the Christ who 
has been perfected by death and resurrection ; by death 
which provides for the present necessities of conscience in 
the forgiveness of sins, and by resurrection which provides 
for the longings and hopes of the soul in the life everlast- 
ing. The messengers of God in this book cease not to 
teach and preach Jesus the Christ, as a Saviour by these 
means and in this sense. 

II. It is, however, the book not of the words, but of the 
acts of the Apostles, and we accordingly find in it the inti- 
mations rather than the expositions of doctrine. It assists 
our present inquiry in a manner more appropriate to its 
historical character, by laying down for us the course of 
external events through which the doctrine was matured. 

I have already adverted to the systematic plan of the 
book, as following out this course of events with the instinct 
of an undeviating purpose. It carries us straight from the 
Gospels to the Epistles, as the span of some great bridge 
continues the road between dissevered regions. Take it 
away and what a chasm appears ! " Paul, an Apostle of 
Jesus Christ, to saints that are in Rome, in Corinth, Thes- 
salonica, Philippi, Galatia, Ephesus, Colossae." Who is this 



140 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

Paul, and in what sense is he an Apostle? We knew him 
not when the twelve were ordained. "We saw him not 
among the witnesses of the resurrection. How came the 
Gospel to these places ? and is it the same Gospel for these 
Gentiles as it was for the Jews ? As for James, and Peter, 
and John, and Jude, we know and revere their commission : 
but we saw them last in partial ignorance and error, and 
we hardly know what the value of their words may be. 

We have noted on a former occasion the answers to these 
questions which the book of Acts supplies — the anointing 
of the Holy Ghost qualifying the men to fulfil the commis- 
sion which they had received, the guidance of Christ given 
to their steps and his attestations to their words and works, 
the call and commission of St. Paul and his special appoint- 
ment to a special work, and the spread of the Gospel in the 
world, and the rise of the Gentile Churches. By means of 
this information we are brought to the point at which we 
can open the apostolic writings, first with a due sense of 
their divine authority, and then with a sufficient acquaint- 
ance with the persons, scenes, and facts with which they 
are connected, and (I ma} T further add) with effective sup- 
ports to our conviction of their genuineness and authentic- 
ity. But neither of these functions of the book is precisely 
that for which we now inquire. Between Gospels and Epis- 
tles there is need for a connection of a more internal kind. 
During the intervening time the doctrine was not only 
spreading, it was clearing and forming itself, or rather was 
being cleared and formed by the hand of its Divine Au- 
thor. This was effected through a certain line of events 
and through the agenc}' of particular persons. With these 
events and persons the Book of Acts is occupied. 

It begins at Jerusalem, it ends at Rome. Between these 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 141 

two points questions have been settled, principles carried 
out, and divinely implanted tendencies disclosed. Espe- 
cially have the relations of the Gospel to Jew and Gentile 
been fixed forever. We see how all the story progressively 
ministers to this result. 

First Peter presents the Gospel as the fulfilment of 
prophecy and completion of the covenant made with the 
fathers. Then the Hellenist element seems to eclipse the 
Hebrew, and Stephen rises to reason and to die. A large 
space is therefore given to the speech, which sets forth the 
progressive nature of the dealings of God with Israel, and 
shows the drift of that current of thought on which we are 
launched. The death of Stephen is not only an individual 
martyrdom, like that of James, so brieity mentioned after- 
wards ; it is a great crisis, and stands as such in the narra- 
tive, with a clear intimation of the position which was 
assumed on the one side and rejected on the other. 
Straightway the Gospel spreads. First Hebrew, then 
Hellenist, by the ministiy of Philip it soon becomes 
Samaritan, and at the next step by that of Peter goes in 
to men uncircumcised. In the story of Cornelius we have 
a detailed statement of the means by which the Lord mani- 
fested his will, that the Gentiles should hear the word and 
believe. Then we pass from the side of Peter to that of 
the new Apostle, to whom the carrying out of this principle 
is committed. Antioch becomes our starting-point, where 
the disciples are first called Christians. We follow the 
steps of the traveller, and see far and wide that God hath 
also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Then 
an opposing power is felt within the Church, and Christian 
Judaism asserts that there is departure from the original 
scheme. The Council meets, and by testimonies of Scrip- 



142 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

ture and of fact infers the verdict of God, and issues the 
high decision, u It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to 
us." Then, and not till then, Europe is entered, and the 
great centres of Greek life are occupied ; but still in every 
place does the Apostle address himself first to the Jews, 
and everywhere they reject and persecute him. Finally, he 
returns to the head-quarters of the nation, and presents 
himself there with every circumstance of conciliation, but 
claiming his place in the covenant and as a preacher of the 
hope of Israel. The scenes and speeches of that crisis are 
given with fulness, because they define the position of the 
Christianity which St. Paul represents towards the Jewish 
S} r stem, and its final and furious rejection by the Jewish 
people. 1 "Believing all things which are written in 
the Law and in the Prophets, and having committed 
nothing against the people or customs of his fathers," 2 
he and his creed are forced from their proper home. 
On it as well as him the Temple doors are shut. Last- 
ly, before the Jews at Pome he closes the long struggle 
with the peroration furnished him by prophecy : — "Well 
spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our 
fathers, saying, Go unto this people and sa} T , Hearing ye 
shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall 
see, and not perceive. For the heart of this people is 
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their 
e}'es have they closed ; lest they should see with their 
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their 



1 Not, as some have put it, because Luke happened to be pres- 
ent. Rather, Luke was present because the scenes and speeches 
were to be reported. 

2 Actsxxiv. 14; xxviii. 17. 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 143 

heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 
Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God 
is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it." 1 

Now let no man think that the rejection of Jews and ad- 
mission of Gentiles were the only result of this long history. 
Another result has been involved in it : Christianity itself 
has been finally drawn out of Judaism, the delicate and 
intricate relations of the two systems being dealt with in 
such a way, that (so to speak) the texture of living fibre 
has been lifted unimpaired out of its former covering, 
leaving behind only a residuum of what was temporary, 
preparatory, and carnal. In fact, the doctrine of the Gos- 
pel has been cleared and formed ; cleared of the false 
element which the existing Judaism would have infused 
into it, and formed of the true elements which the old 
covenant had been intended to prepare for its use. 

Two great principles, it seems to me, w r ere fought for and 
secured, which may be expressed (though not with strict 
accurac} T ) by saying that the Gospel is the substitute for the 
Laiv, and that the Gospel is the heir of the Laiv. 

a. In saying that*^e Gospel is the substitute for the Laio, 
I do not mean that it is so, as doing what the Law had 
done before it came, nor jet as doing what the Law had 
been meant, but had failed, to do ; but only as doing that 
which the Law had been supposed to do. The Gospel pro- 
vides for individual souls the means of justification and the 
title to eternal life. This the Law had not done, had not 
been meant to do, and by Prophets and Psalmists had been 
asserted not to do. Yet it had sunk deep into the mind 
of those who were under it, that this was the very thing 

i Acts xxviii. 25-28. 



144 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

which it did. Scribes taught distinctly, and the people 
were possessed with the idea, that there had been a law 
given which could give life, and that righteousness was by 
that Law. Here was the conviction which had entwined 
itself with their patriotism and their religion. Here was 
their pride and boast, and the prerogative which severed 
them from all mankind. Then, as now, they looked for a 
Messiah, who was to perfect the keeping of the Law, and 
(in some sense) to save other nations by reducing them to 
its obedience, and (as appeared in the sequel) mauy re- 
ceived Jesus himself as the Messiah, without any material 
change in that idea. But when the death of Jesus was 
preached as procuring, and the resurrection of Jesus as 
originating eternal life, and when the simple act of faith in 
him was proclaimed as the means of sharing it, the antago- 
nism of the two doctrines appeared. 

It was first in the arguments of Stephen, and afterwards 
in the preaching of Paul, that this particular feature of the 
Christian system made itself felt in its bearing on the great 
Jewish error. Hence the passion, the virulence, and the 
rancor with which the two men were pursued. " This 
man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this 
holy place and the law " * — so ran the accusation against 
the first martyr : and 3 T ears afterwards the superintendent 
of his execution heard the same words shrieked out against 
himself, " Men of Israel, help ! This is the man who 
teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the 
law, and this place." 2 False aud odious allegations ! Yet 
the doctrine of which the two men were the great exponents 
did really involve a flat contradiction of the prevailing 

i Acts vi. 13. 2 Ibid. xxi. 28. 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 145 

Jewish theory about the people, and the law, and that place. 
Within the Christian Church the same theory held its 
ground, and in that quarter cost the Apostle a still closer 
and keener conflict, in order to vindicate and establish for 
Jew as well as Gentile the great principle, " By grace are 
ye saved through faith," 1 or, as St. Peter expressed the 
same truth, " Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ 
we shall be saved, even as they." 2 

Still the anxious pastor in his parish, still the self-obser- 
vant Christian in his own heart, learns how deep-seated 
and how stubborn is that principle in human nature, which 
seeks the starting-point of salvation in self rather than in 
God, in doing rather than in receiving, in work rather than 
in grace. By the common Jewish theory of the Law, that 
principle has fortified itself strongly, and clothed itself 
gloriously, with the usurped sanctions of God. The Juda- 
izing doctrine would have perpetuated that usurpation in 
the Christian Church, and, in so doing, would have neutral- 
ized the Gospel itself. The keen eye of the selected 
champion saw in a moment the fatal consequences of cus- 
toms turned into doctrines, which others, who believed as 
he did, were perhaps inclined to regard with indulgence, 
as signs of an affectionate veneration for ancient ordi- 
nances. 

In his writings we see how his penetrating eye discerned 
the danger, and how his unsparing hand averted it : we see 
also that the intuitive discernment and the impulsive, vigor 
were the result of a deep personal experience, both of the 
error which he resisted, and of the truth which he defended. 
In the Acts we are carried through the period of this con- 

i Eph. ii. 8. 2 Acts xv. 11. 

13 



146 . THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

test in the outward course of events, and when the history 
ceases in the hired house at Home, the Gospel has fought 
itself free, and severed itself from Judaism, not merely in 
its form, but in its essence, proclaiming salvation by the 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the 
Law. 

b. The other principle which is contended for and 
secured is, that the Gospel is the heir of the Law ; that it 
inherits what the Law had prepared. The Law, on its 
national and ceremonial side, had created a vast and 
closelj'-woven S3 7 stem of ideas. These were wrought out 
and exhibited by it in forms according to the flesh — an 
elect nation, a miraculous history, a special covenant, a 
worldly sanctuary, a perpetual service, an anointed priest- 
hood, a ceremonial sanctity, a scheme of sacrifice and 
atonement, a purchased possession, a holy city, a throne 
of David, a destin} r of dominion. Were these ideas to be 
lost, and the language which expressed them to be dropped, 
when the Gospel came ? No ! It was the heir of the Law. 
The Law had prepared these riches, and now bequeathed 
them to a successor able to unlock and to diffuse them. 
The Gospel claimed them all, and developed in them a 
value unknown before. It asserted itself as the proper 
and predestined continuation of the covenant made of God 
with the fathers, the real and only fulfilment of all which 
was typified and prophesied ; presenting the same ideas, 
which had been before embodied in the narrow but distinct 
limits of carnal forms, in their spiritual, universal, and 
eternal character. The body of types according to the 
flesh died with Christ, and with Christ it rose again a body 
of antitypes according to the Spirit. Those who were after 
the flesh could not recognize its identity : those who were 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 147 

after the Spirit felt and proclaimed it. The change was as 
great, the identity was as real, as in that mystery of the 
resurrection of the body which the same preachers showed : 
in which the earthly frame must lay aside the flesh and 
blood which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and must 
reappear, dead and raised again, another and yet the same, 
" sown in weakness and raised in power, sown in dishonor 
and raised in glory, sown a natural body and raised a 
spiritual body." 

But I should speak amiss if I left it to appear that the 
Gospel inherited the ideas only of the preceding dispensa- 
tion, and not, in one sense, their form also. Their written 
form it did inherit, unchanged and unchangeable. The 
Law and the Prophets, as scriptures, as a book, were still- 
under the new dispensation what they had been under the 
old — the voice of the Spirit and the word of God. Nay ! 
this written word belonged to the new dispensation more 
truly than to the old, for these scriptures also were now 
raised to newness of life, and were recognized as prepared 
for the uses to which they were now applied, and written 
less for the immediate than for the ulterior purposes ; as 
St. Peter has expressed it, " Not unto themselves, but unto 
us they did minister the things which are now reported 
unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 1 This is 
ever the position of St. Paul, for, as one has truly said, 
" None of the Apostles has laid such stress upon the Holy 
Scripture as the Apostle of the Spirit and liberty." 2 And 
as this appears in his writings, so does it also in the his- 

1 1 Peter i. 12. 

2 Baumgarten on the Acts, vol. iii. 78 (Clarke's Tr.). 



148 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRIXE. LECT. V. 

tory. From his first reported speech at the Pisidian 
Antioch, 1 which bases all upon the Scriptures, still he goes 
on with the Scriptures in his hand, till he stands and is 
judged, " believing all things which are written in the Law 
and in the Prophets ; " 2 and finally parts from the Roman 
Jews after "persuading them concerning Jesus, both out 
of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets, from morn- 
ing till evening." 3 This then is the position taken at the 
beginning and fought for to the end ; and it is a striking 
sight to see how resolutety St. Paul insists that he and his 
doctrine are the true representatives of the Law and the 
Prophets, while he is being persecuted and cast out, as 
having betrayed and blasphemed them. 

These two principles — what the Gospel does without 
the Law, and what the Gospel derives from the Law — do 
in fact contain the main substance of apostolic teaching. 
On the one side, the principle that men are "justified 
freely b} T God's grace through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus" 4 is laid as the deep foundation of all the 
various forms and applications of evangelical truth. On 
the other, the principle that the 6ame things which were 
done under the old covenant in the region of the flesh are 
done under the new covenant in the region of the spirit, 
opens out into the doctrine of the mediatorial work of 
Christ in the true tabernacle, the sacrificial character of 
his death, the atoning virtue of his blood, the sanctification 
of believers as a kingdom of priests and an holy nation, 
and their destined inheritance in a promised land and a 
holy city of their God. The expansion of these doctrines 



i Acts xv. 13, 41. 2 Ibid. xxiv. H. 

*Acts xxviii. 23. 4 Rom. iii. 24. 



LECT. V. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 149 

fills and forms all the Epistles, and each is distinctly 
wrought out by itself, the one in the Epistle to the Romans 
at the beginning, the other in the Epistle to the Hebrews 
at the end, of the course of the Pauline writings. 

It is in the Epistles themselves that we behold this ex- 
pansion and formation of doctrine. In the Book of Acts 
we are conversant rather with the providential circum- 
stances through which the result was obtained. Great 
principles are wrought out and settled in men's minds only 
through some such process as is here disclosed ; namely, 
by persons raised up to represent them, by consultations, 
reasonings, debates concerning them, by events which com- 
pel their more distinct assertion and test their hidden 
strength, and by the action of opposing principles, firmly 
resisted in their fierce assaults, or instinctively rejected in 
their subtle . approaches. This, the common course of the 
development and establishment of all principles, is here 
presented to us as carried on under the manifested guid- 
ance of the Lord himself; who, by special interventions, 
raises up the persons, guides the events, and certifies the 
issues with his own signature and seal. 

Blessing and praise be unto his holy name, because he 
has done this ! For he has thus added to the manifestation 
of himself his own direction as to the way in which it is to 
be used. On what a sea of uncertainties we should else 
have been launched ! Observe the vague and "wavering 
doctrine which ensues whenever the divine attestation of 
the apostolical teaching meets with discredit or mistrust. 
Now the Gospel is nothing but a re-publication, pure and 
perfect, of the Law of God ; now it is a proclamation of 
his universal fatherhood ; now an exhibition of the beauty 
of holiness and the attraction of love ; now the revelation 

13* 



150 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. V. 

of a righteous King and Head of the human race ; now it 
seems little else than a negation, a sweeping away of all 
the ideas which a teaching supposed to be divine had 
fashioned through preceding ages. So it is when men pro- 
ceed, as if the summing up of the manifestation of Christ 
had not been done for them, but was left for them to do. 
From all partial or perverted representations our refuge is 
with those who were actually commissioned to do it, and 
who, under a divine guidance adequate to the exigencies of 
that commission, ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. 
Through the blessed ordinance of a written word they have 
not ceased to do so now. To us, even to us who are here 
alive this day, the}?- preach him still ; a Christ " who died 
for our sins and rose again for our justification ; " a Christ 
who saves without the Law, yet one who is witnessed by 
the Law and the Prophets. So they preach, and so we 
believe. This was the beginning of the confidence and the 
rejoicing of the hope to the Church at its birth, and this 
beginning it will hold firm unto the end. It is for us to 
see that we bear our part in the long history of the faith, 
finding its reality in the joy of our own salvation, and 
transmitting its testimony to the generation to come. 






LECTURE VI. 

THE EPISTLES. 

PAUL, A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST, CALLED TO BE AN APOSTLE, SEPARATED 
UNTO THE GOSPEL OF GOD ... TO ALL THAT BE IN ROME, BELOVED OF 
GOD, CALLED TO BE SAINTS : GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR 
FATHER, AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. — Rom. i. 1, 7. 

These words are the beginning and end of the long super- 
scription which opens the series of Apostolic Epistles. That 
superscription forms a close and living union with the pre- 
ceding book, in which we have known Paul the servant of 
Jesus Christ, his calling to be an Apostle, his separation to 
the gospel of God, and have left him at its close testifying 
to that gospel in Rome itself. A still more intimate union 
will disclose itself to any one who studies the position 
which he takes up for his gospel and himself in the book of 
Acts, and then considers the succinct and explicit assertion 
of the same position in the intervening verses of this super- 
scription, where he characterizes the gospel to which he 
was separated as that which " God had promised afore by 
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son 
Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David 
according to the flesh ; and declared to be the Son of God 
with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the res- 
urrection from the dead: by whom," he adds, "we have 
received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith 
among all nations, for his name : among whom are ye also 
the called of Jesus Christ." Here the Apostle seems to 

151 



152 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. VI. 

stand before us as he did in the previous history,, firmly 
holding his ground in the prophetic and historic line of the 
old covenant, and from that standing-point opening the dis- 
pensation of the Spirit, which has its source and its pledge 
in the resurrection, and claiming " all nations " for the 
"obedience of faith." 

This witness of continuity is especially important in pass- 
ing from the apostolic history to the apostolic writings, 
since the history gains significance from the doctrine, and 
the doctrine derives authority from the history. The per- 
sons and events in the Book of Acts are important because 
they were ordained for the working out of the truth of the 
Gospel. But what is that truth which they worked out? 

Summaries of its general character occur in that book 
continually, and the points which are being cleared and 
established are strongly indicated ; but we have only sum- 
maries and indications, and the sketches of doctrines pre- 
sented to us are taken rather from without than from within. 
If we except the debate in the council of Jerusalem and the 
charge to the elders of Miletus, all the discourses reported 
in this book are addressed to those who are not yet Chris- 
tians. So Christ was preached to the world : but how was 
he taught to the Church? 

This element is wanting in the history : yet it is one 
which we should have natural^ looked to find ; and, as we 
are brought into contact with so many Churches, on whose 
incipient and unsettled Christianity the labor of St. Paul 
was spent, its absence is really remarkable. We are told 
how he passed two years at Ephesus, and a year and a half 
at Corinth, " teaching the word of God among them," how, 
revisiting his Churches, " he gave them much exhortation," 
and how he " was long preaching" in one assembly or an- 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 153 

other of the brethren : but no particulars of these preach- 
ings, teachings, and exhortations are given : and, consider- 
ing that we have specimens of every kind of address to those 
that are ivithout, we might well ask why there is no exam- 
ple to show how men were taught after they had believed. 
But they who hold that the scheme of Scripture as a whole 
is of the Holy Ghost will not ask that question ; for they 
see that this omission is part of a plan, which provides 
this information for us in a more worthy and perfect way ; 
namely, by placing in our hands the collection of Apostolic 
Epistles. 

These writings are addressed to those who are already 
Christians ; as our text describes them, " called of Christ 
Jesus — beloved of God — called saints." Such high titles, 
repeated in the successive superscriptions, warn us that we 
are here in the esoteric circle of doctrine. Whatever prog- 
ress of doctrine these writings exhibit, that fact is the key 
to it. It must be a distinctly subjective progress, working 
out the results of the manifestation of Christ in the con- 
sciousness of men. 

Observe the point at which we have arrived, by the time 
that we finish the Book of Acts, and open the Epistle to the 
Romans. The facts of the manifestation of Christ have been 
completed, and have been testified in all fulness and cer- 
taint3 T by the witnesses chosen of God. They have not only 
testified of the facts, they have summed them up ; have an- 
nounced their scope and purpose in the counsels of God, as 
effecting the redemption of the world, and have called men 
to partake in the fruits of that redemption by believing and 
being baptized. They have given this testimony, not as of 
themselves, but with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
whose witness is united with their own, and whose indwell- 



154 THE PPwOGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

ing presence is given also to those who receive the testi- 
mony, in order to open its meaning and to seal its truth. 
Thus a holy Church is formed, which gradually proves itself 
catholic, and shows at once its power of expansion and its 
spirit of unit} 7 ; and within its protecting framework there 
exists a communion of saints, a common participation in the 
same spiritual possessions by all whom a union with Christ 
has separated and sanctified to God ; and thus men are 
joined to the Lord and united with each other, and rest in 
the consciousness that they have found the forgiveness of 
sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. In 
its fundamental articles the Creed is now complete. 

To this point the book of Acts conducts us, and at this 
point it leaves us. 

It may be said, what more should follow? Christians 
exist. Christian communities are formed. Let them now 
be left to their ordinary and permanent resources. 

So it might have been. — So in God's mercy it was not. 
A new life had begun, intellectual, moral, and social, 
teeming with elements which could not but work and ex- 
pand. It would have been hard to say with what force they 
would do so, or in what direction. Noiv the great ideas of 
the Gospel are old and familiar ; and the very words which 
represent them have been sorety battered by controversy, 
and worn thin by use. But then the revelation of Christ 
had just broken, like an unexpected morning, on a weary 
and hopeless world. The stupendous events which had so 
lately passed on earth, the present actual relations with 
heaven which were witnessed to men by proofs within and 
around them, the prospect of things awful and glorious 
hastening on, and perhaps already near at hand, must have 
given a stimulus to thought and feeling, the first sensations 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 155 

of which it is not easy for us now to estimate. The Father 
revealed, the Son incarnate, the Holy Ghost sent clown from 
heaven — redemption wrought, salvation given, the resur- 
rection of the body, the eternal judgment, the second death, 
the life eternal — new principles of thought, new standards 
of character, new grounds of duty, new motives, new pow- 
ers, new bonds between man and man, new forms of human 
society, new language for human lips — all coming at once 
upon men's minds, placed them, as it were, in a different 
world from that in which they had lived before. At the 
same time they carried into that world of thought all the 
tendencies, infirmities, and perversities of our nature, and 
revealed truth had to settle itself into lasting forms, to find 
its adequate expression, and to have its moral and social 
consequences deduced, under a variety of influences uncon- 
genial to itself. So critical a period, on which the whole 
future of the Gospel hung, would seem to cry aloud for a 
continued action of the living word of God ; such as might, 
with supreme authority, both judge and guide the thoughts 
of men, and translate the principles which they had received 
into life and practice. 

The Lord recognized this necessit} r . He met it by the 
living voice of his Apostles ; and their Epistles remain as 
the permanent record of this part of their work. They are 
the voice of the Spirit, speaking within the Church to those 
who are themselves within it, certifying to them the true 
interpretations and applications of the principles of thought 
and life which as believers in Jesus they have received. 
This is the function in the scheme of divine instruction 
which belongs to these writings ; and I propose now to note 
some particular aspects in which their designation and 
adaptation to it will appear. Without entering yet into 



156 . THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. VI. 

the examination of their actual doctrine, we shall see that 
the Epistles are fitted to form a course of teaching of the 
kind described, by their form, their method, their author- 
ship, and their relative character. 

I. The form in which this teaching is given to us is very 
significant. " The epistolaiy form," says Bengel, "is a pre-' 
eminence of the Scriptures of the New Testament as com- 
pared with those of the Old." (11) It is a suggestive remark, 
reminding us of that open communication and equal partici- 
pation of revealed truth, which is the prerogative of the 
later above the former dispensation ; indicating too that the 
teacher and the taught are placed on one common level in 
the fellowship of truth. The Prophets delivered oracles to 
the people, but the Apostles wrote letters to the brethren, let- 
ters characterized by all that fulness of unreserved expla- 
nation, and that play of various feeling, which are proper 
to that form of intercourse. It is in its nature a more fa- 
miliar communication, as between those who are, or should 
be, equals. That character may less obviously force upon 
us the sense, that the light which is thrown on all subjects 
is that of a divine inspiration ; but this is only the natural 
effect of the greater fulness of that light ; for so the moon- 
beams fix the eye upon themselves, as they burst through 
the rifts of rolling clouds, catching the edges of objects and 
falling on patches of the landscape ; while, under the settled 
brightness of the universal and genial da}', it is not so much 
the light that we think of, as the varied scene which it 
shows. 

But the fact that the teaching of the Apostles is repre- 
sented by their letters, is a peculiarity, not only in compari- 
son with the teaching of the Prophets, but with ancient 
teaching in general, which is perpetuated either in regular 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 157 

treatises or in discourses or conversations preserved in 
writing. The form adopted in the New Testament combines 
the advantages of the treatise and the conversation. The 
letter may treat important subjects with accuracy and ful- 
ness, but it will do so in immediate connection with actual 
life. It is written to meet an occasion. It is addressed to 
particular states of mind. It breathes of the heart of the 
writer. It takes its aim from the exigencies and its tone 
from the feelings of the moment. In these respects it suits 
well with a period of instruction, in which the word of God 
is to be given to men, not so much in the way of informa- 
tion, as in the way of education; or, in other words, in which 
the truth is to be delivered, not abstractedly, but with a 
close relation to the condition of mind of its recipients. 

Thus it is delivered in the Epistles. Christ has been 
received ; Christian life has commenced ; Christian commu- 
nities have been formed ; and men's minds have been at 
work on the great principles which they have embraced. 
Some of these principles in one place, and others of them in 
another, have been imperfectly grasped, or positively per- 
verted, or practically misapplied, so as to call for explana- 
tion or correction ; or else they have been both apprehended 
and applied so worthily, that the teacher, filled with joy and 
praise, feels able to open out the mysteries of God, as one 
speaking wisdom among them that are perfect. These con- 
ditions of mind were not individual accidents. Rome, Cor- 
inth, Galatia, Ephesus, supplied examples of different ten- 
dencies of the human mind in connection with the principles 
of the Gospel — tendencies which would ever recur, and on 
which it was requisite for the future guidance of the Church 
that the word of God should pronounce. It did pronounce 
in the most effectual way, by those letters which are ad- 

14 



158 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

dressed by the commissioners of Christ, not to possible but 
to actual cases, with that largeness of view which belongs 
to spectators at a certain distance from the scene, and with 
that closeness of application which personal acquaint ance 
dictates and personal affection inspires. 

Thus the fuller expositions of truth contained in the 
Epistles are based on what the first principles of the Gospel 
had already wrought in human hearts ; and its doctrines 
are cleared and settled, developed and combined, in corre- 
spondence with the ascertained capacities and necessities 
of believers. 

II. From the adaptation of the form I pass to that of the 
method which the apostolic writings employ in the comple- 
tion of evangelical doctrine. The one is in perfect harmony 
with the other. It is a method of companionship rather 
than of dictation. The writer does not announce a succes- 
sion of revelations, or arrest the inquiries which he encoun- 
ters in men's hearts by the unanswerable formula, u Thus 
saith the Lord." He rouses, he animates, he goes along 
with the working of men's minds, by showing them the 
workings of his own. He utters his own convictions, he 
pours forth his own experience, he appeals to others to 
"judge what he says," and commends his words "to their 
conscience in the sight of God." He confutes by argument 
rather than by authority, deduces his conclusions by pro- 
cesses of reasoning, and establishes his points by interpre- 
tations and applications of the former Scriptures. Such a 
method necessarily creates a multitude of occasions for hesi- 
tation or objection, and it has been proposed to meet these 
difficulties by the principle, that we are bound to accept the 
conclusions as matter of revelation, but not to assent to the 
validity of the arguments or the applicability of the quota- 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 159 

tions. The more we enter into the spirit of the particular 
passages which have been thought to require that qualifica- 
tion, the more we feel that it can only have seemed neces- 
saiy, from a want of real and deep harmony with the mind 
of Scripture. But I have no call to enter on that subject ; 
my purpose is simply to draw attention to the fact, that not 
only in the conclusions given, but in the methods employed 
in reaching them, there is an outward guidance of the 
Christian mind and a visible purpose to provide such 
guidance. 

Consider, for instance, the argument on justification in 
the early part of the Epistle to the Romans, which accom- 
plishes every step by the aid of the former Scriptures. Why 
all this labor in proving what might have been decided by 
a simple announcement from one entrusted with the word 
of God ? Would not the apostolic declaration that such a 
statement was error, and that such another was truth, have 
sufficed for the settlement of that particular question? 
Doubtless ! but it would not have sufficed to train men's 
minds to that thoughtfulness whereby truth becomes their 
own, or to educate them to the living use of the Scriptures 
as the constituted guide of inquiry. 

It is the same with those records of personal experience, 
and those effusions of personal feeling, which teach us how 
the revelation of Christ tells upon the believer's heart. We 
see, for instance, in the seventh and eighth chapters of the 
same Epistle, the writer's own heart thrown open ; first in 
its passage from the law of sin and death to the law of the 
spirit of life in Christ Jesus ; and then in the assured con- 
sciousness of the vast and various blessings, present and 
future, which belong to the children of God, and the heirs 
together with Christ, whom nothing shall be able to sepa- 



160 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

rate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus their 
Lord. This is not only definite information, it is also effect- 
ive education, showing the revelation of God as wrought 
into its ultimate and subjective form ; and assisting by sym- 
pathy, and ratifying by example, the same processes in other 
hearts. 

Yet we should speak amiss, if we represented the educa- 
tion of Christian thought as carried on in the Epistles onl} r 
by methods which seem to place the Apostle on the same 
level with his readers. No ! there is everywhere present, in 
the lofty and unwavering testimony, the sense of an authority 
which makes all things sure; and whenever occasions arise, 
as from Galatian perverseness or Corinthian disorder, it as- 
serts its unhesitating and uncompromising claims. Again, 
when need so requires, there is a change in the common 
method ; and the progress of doctrine is effected in the pro- 
phetic manner, by definite additions to former revelations : 
as when St. Paul informs the Thessalonians, "in the word 
of the Lord," ! of some particulars not before made known, 
as to the manner in which the dead and the living will meet 
the Lord at his appearing. Thus apostolical authority and 
direct revelation diffuse over the Epistles their certainty 
and their majesty ; but yet the presence of these more com- 
manding elements is not suffered to overpower that general 
character of doctrine, which is proper for those who are of 
full age, and who have themselves " an unction from the 
Holy One, that they may know all things." 2 The mind of 
the teacher still enters into a free companionship with the 
mind that is taught, so as to exercise and educate the spir- 
itual faculties, at the same time conducting them with de- 

1 1 Thess. iv. 13-17. 5 1 John ii. 20. 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 161 

cisive authority to conclusions which they might else have 
failed to reach. 

III. Turn now to the autJwrship of these writings. If 
the form and method of this scheme of Christian education 
are important features of it, so also is the selection of its 
agents ; for here, as in other departments of education, we 
may say that " the master is the school." 

Who are the appointed teachers of the Church ? Peter and 
John, the two chief Apostles ; James and Jude, the breth- 
ren of the Lord. We take knowledge of them that they 
have been with Jesus, and own the highest authority which 
association with him can give. But the chief place in this 
system of teaching does not belong to any one of them, nor 
to all of them together. Their united writings form but a 
second volume, and that a very thin one, just one-fifth of 
the bulk of the first, to which moreover it bears in some 
degree a kind of supplementary relation. The office of 
working out the principles of Christian faith into full pro- 
portions and clearly defined forms was assigned to another, 
to " Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an 
Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he had 
promised afore by his Prophets in his holy Scriptures." 

Now is it not a remarkable and almost a startling fact, 
that this great office should have been assigned to one who 
had not been a witness of the Lord's life on earth, and had 
nothing to tell of things which he had seen with his eyes, 
and heard with his ears, and his hands had handled of the 
word of life? We remember the indispensable importance 
of this qualification for the original apostleship, as ex- 
pressed on the appointment of Matthias : " Of these men 
which have companied with us all the time that the Lord 
Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the bap- 

14* 



162 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

tism of John unto that same day in which he was taken up 
from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of 
his resurrection." Yet on him who had never companied 
with him, or even with them, for one single clay, the most 
important, or, at least, the most extensive and enduring 
part of the apostolic work devolved. The peculiar quali- 
fications, which in other respects fitted St. Paul for the 
work whereto he was called, have ever received a just ap- 
preciation and ample treatment. We can all perceive the 
active habit, the fervent spirit, the strong will, the warm 
affections, the tender sensibility, the exercised intellect, 
the subjective tendencies of thought, the vivid conscious- 
ness of his own inward history, the combination of Greek 
and Hebrew training, the thorough grounding of the mind 
in the Law and the Prophets, the profound experience of 
the false theory of Judaism, in its effects on his own heart, 
and in the practical consequences to which it once carried 
him ; finally, the suddenness with which the Gospel came 
upon him, making him to know with a singular distinctness 
what is the contrast between salvation sought by law 
through works, and salvation found by grace through faith, 
and what is the change in the whole world within, when 
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes a man 
free from the law of sin and death. 

Perhaps it is commonly felt that these qualifications out- 
weighed the disadvantage at which he stood in comparison 
with the other Apostles who had been with Jesus, and that 
this accounts for the addition to their number of one in 
other respects specially fitted for the work, although born 
out of due time. But it will better consist with the prin- 
ciples on which his whole history must be judged, if we 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 163 

say, that his being born out of due time was itself one of 
Ms qualifications. 

Now we must remember that it is the Lord, foreseeing 
and foreordaining all, who directs the course of these 
events. If, after choosing and training the Twelve, he 
calls another man, who has had no share in that training, 
and specially commits to him a department of the apostolic 
work, we cannot speak of such a step as an afterthought 
and supplement, as we might do if it occurred in some 
human undertaking, in which the original arrangements 
had proved inadequate. We may be sure that the call of 
St. Paul after the manifestation of Christ was finished, was 
as much a part of the divine plan, as was the call of the 
Twelve when that manifestation was beginning, and that 
the later call must have corresponded as truly with his 
appointed work as the earlier call did with theirs. 

We are here led to the more distinct observation, that 
the apostolic testimony was twofold, — first to the facts of 
the manifestation of Christ, secondly to its intended conse- 
quences in the spiritual state of man. 

It was necessary that those who were to represent the 
Lord to the world, in his words and deeds, his mind and 
life, should be men on whose hearts the holy image had 
been stamped by closest intercourse, and who could testify 
to others of what their eyes had seen. They who were so 
qualified did their work, and gave the knowledge of Jesus 
to mankind. Modern study traces the distinct outlines, 
and finds the solid fragment of their oral narratives de- 
posited in the written Gospels^ Still further, St. Luke's 
preface shows that these narratives were the regular instru- 
ments of Christian education, " the things wherein " cate- 



164 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

chumens "were instructed." 1 This kind of instruction 
has found its permanent form in the fourfold Gospel. 

But believers were also to be trained to the full appre- 
hension of the effects of the manifestation in their own 
spiritual life. The apostolic teaching on this subject is 
represented forever by the Epistles, and those documents 
are in a remarkable degree restricted to that particular 
office. We should naturally have expected in apostolic 
teaching an abundant reference to the words and acts of 
our Lord Jesus, as the prolific sources of instruction. But 
we do not find such reference, nor anything like it, till we 
come to the Epistles of James, Peter, and John, and catch 
again the sound of words which we had heard from their 
Master and ours. The great doctor of the Church had no 
such remembrances. His relations with the Lord only 
commenced after Jesus was glorified and the dispensation 
of the Spirit had begun. If the others were the Apostles 
of the manifestation of Christ, he was the Apostle of its 
results; and, in the fact of passing under his teaching, we 
have sufficient warning that we are advancing from the 
lessons which the life, and the character, and the words of 
Jesus gave, into the distinct exposition of the redemption, 
the reconciliation, the salvation which result from his ap- 
pearing. In this way it was provided that the two correla- 
tive kinds of teaching, which the Church received at the 
first, should be left to the Church forever in the distinct- 
ness of their respective developments ; for this distinctness 
of development in the second kind of teaching is both 
announced and secured by its being confided to St. Paul. 

Yet a danger might arise ; a danger which did attend 



1 A6yot Trepi 5>v /cemjx^'JS* Lllke i. 4. 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 165 

his living ministry, and which recent theories have been 
eager to revive. It might appear, that the Gospel which 
he preached was not so much a stage of progress as an 
individual variety, and that in following it out we had 
diverged from the track of the original doctrine, and were 
no longer sustained by the authority of the Twelve. 

The Twelve, therefore, are joined with St. Paul, as 
authors together with him of the doctrinal canon of the 
Church, fulfilling this office through Peter and John, their 
natural leaders and original representatives, and in a more 
restricted measure through James and Jude, the brethren 
of the Lord, to the former of whom, in the second stage of 
the Church's history, so eminent and peculiar a position is 
assigned. Had we been permitted to choose our instructors 
from among " the glorious company," three of these names 
at least would have been uttered by every tongue ; and 
besides our desire to be taught by their lips, we should, as 
disciples of St. Paul, have felt a natural anxiety to know 
whether " James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be 
pillars," " added nothing to," * and took nothing from, the 
substance of the doctrine which we had received through 
him. It was the will of God that this anxiety should be 
met. We have not been left to conjectures and surmises. 
We have words from these very Apostles, expressing the 
mind of their later life, words in which we recognize the 
mellow tone of age, the settled manner of an old experience, 
and the long habit of Christian thought. We not only meet 
the men whom we should wish to hear, but we meet them at 
the point where we should wish to hear them, now the 
venerated authorities in the Church which they had long 

1 Galatians ii. 9. 



166 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

since founded, and fully cognizant of its intervening 
history. 

Thus, if the collection of Epistles be intended to exhibit 
the fulness and maturity of Christian doctrine, the selection 
of its authors corresponds to the end in view : the man 
who is best fitted to conduct, being associated with the 
men who are best fitted to confirm, the exposition and 
development of the Gospel of Christ. 

IV. In the last place I must advert, though it is only 
possible to do so very slightly, to the relative characters of 
the several Epistles, as complementary one to another, and 
constituent parts of one body of teaching. 

1. The Pauline Epistles appear, with very small varia- 
tion, to have been habitually ranged in that order in which 
we read them now ; and it is one which on the whole, and 
in a certain measure, produces the effect of a course of doc- 
trine. They fall naturally into groups, which stand, rela- 
tively to each other, in the places which they ought to 
occupy for purposes of progressive instruction. The 
Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians have a 
corrective and decisive character. They are the voice of 
the doctor of the Church, expounding with blended argu- 
ment and authority the meaning and the bearing of the 
principles of the Gospel which his hearers had already re- 
ceived ; so as to decide the uncertainties, and correct the 
divergences, which will always characterize every second 
stage in the history of truth. When the enjoj'ment of a 
new discovery passes into reflection upon it, and im- 
pressions begin to define themselves in words, and " good 
tidings " are shaping themselves into doctrines and laws of 
life, a time of danger and necessity has come. Then the 
vagueness and the incorrectness of many first impressions 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 167 

come to light ; then old habits of thought are found still to 
survive, and old principles return to enter into damaging 
or destructive combination with those by which they had 
seemingly been expelled. Then, through treacherous arts, 
through perverse moral tendencies, and even through logical 
weakness, the tender system of truth may suffer, in the 
period of its formation, injuries which will be forever 
fatal. The reader of the first three Epistles finds himself 
in the presence of such a state of things, and feels that the 
necessities, which are there met by the word of the Lord, 
would, if not thus provided for, have destroyed all security 
in any further advance of thought. 

Especially in this point of view does the Epistle to the 
Romans claim the place which it has habitually held as the 
first step in the epistolary course. The subject on which it 
gives a full and decisive exposition is not only vital but fun- 
damental ; nainely, the need, the nature, and the effects of the 
justification for individual souls which the Gospel preaches 
and which faith receives. As there can be no repose for a soul 
while that first point of personal anxiety, " How can man 
be just with God?" is left unsettled; so there can be no 
solidity for a s} T stem of doctrine till the true answer to that 
question has been distinctly shaped and firmly deposited. 
Moreover, if the Gospel of St. Matthew fitly opens the 
whole evangelical record by connecting it with the former 
Scriptures, so also for the same reason does this great 
Epistle fitly open the doctrinal series : for what the one 
does in respect of fact, the other does in respect of doc- 
trine, justifying throughout the intimation with which it 
opens that the Gospel will here be treated as that " which 
God had promised before by his prophets in the Holy 
Scriptures." In the constant references, and in the whole 



168 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

line of argument, we see the illustrious genealogy and 
lineal descent of the Christian doctrine of justification by- 
faith, traced, like that of Jesus himself, from Abraham and 
David, and vindicated by the witness of the Law and the 
Prophets ; so that we enter on the final exposition of the 
truth with a settled sense that in all the successive stages 
of its revelation the truth has still been one. 

In the Epistles to the Corinthians we have passed into 
another region of thought, conversing now among the 
Greeks who seek after wisdom. In the presence of a spirit 
of self-confident freedom, both in thought and conduct, or, 
in other words, in presence of the essential spirit of the 
world, rising again like a returning tide, the Gospel de- 
velops its divine and indefeasible authority, claims the 
subjection of the mind, and regulates the life of the 
Church. 

In the Epistle to the Galatians it encounters, not the 
spirit of a presumptuous freedom, but the spirit of a wilful 
bondage, which returns after its own stubborn and insen- 
sate fashion to the elements of the world and of the flesh. 
In repelling this tendenc} T , the apostolic doctrine asserts 
more strongly than ever its character as a revelation of 
Jesus (Christ, and shines out more clearly as a dispensation 
of spirit and of liberty. 

Thus in the first three Epistles the first questions have 
been answered and the first clangers averted ; and the apos- 
tolic or Pauline doctrine has established its divine charac- 
ter 1 and developed its essential features. 

1 In the Romans, by connecting itself with the inspiration of the 
Old Testament ; in the Corinthians and Galatians, by asserting its 
own (see especially 1 Cor. ii. and Gal. i.) 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 169 

The following Epistles differ from this first group in the 
comparative absence of the controversial attitude and of the 
judicial tone. As those whose minds are now cleared, set- 
tled, and secured, we readily follow the Apostle to that more 
calm and lofty stage of thought on which he stands in his 
Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians ; when, no longer 
in collision with human error, he expatiates in the view of 
the eternal purposes of God, and of the ideal perfections of 
the Church in Christ. If inspiration was asserted in the 
other Epistles, here it is felt. We hear, not as before, the 
doctor of the Church expounding, confuting, and deciding, 
but rather a prophet of truth speaking as "one borne along 
by the Holy Ghost." * Yet in both Epistles this high strain 
passes by the most natural transition into the plainest coun- 
sels, and in the intervening Epistle to the Philippians the 
voice is not that of a prophet but of a friend. 

Finally, the Thessalonian Epistles complete St. Paul's 
addresses to seven Churches, and, though first in the date 
of production, may fitly be read last in the permanent order, 
as being specially distinguished by the eschatological ele- 
ment, and sustaining the conflict of faith by the preaching 
of " that blessed hope " and " the glorious appearing and 
the coming of the day of God." 2 

To this body of doctrine the Pastoral Epistles add their 
suggestive words, on the principles and spirit of that office, 
which is at once a government to order the Church and a 

1 virb Tzvevfiarog ayiov (pepofievog. Who can read Eph. i. and ii. with- 
out being reminded of this expression of St. Peter, by the sustained 
swell and unbroken flow of the thoughts and language ? 

2 A characteristic made very noticeable in the present division 
by chapters, each chapter in the first Epistle closing with the men- 
tion of this subject. 

15 



170 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

ministry to serve it ; so that, in the acknowledged writings 
of St. Paul, we advance from the first momentous question 
of justification for individual souls, through a thousand 
various exigencies and unfoldings of the life of faith, till 
we reach the outer circle of ministerial provision for the 
care of the Church and the stewardship of the truth. 

2. But, in passing through this course of teaching, we 
have been in continual contact with the reminiscences, the 
ideas, the imagery, and the language which are natural to 
one who was by origin and training a Hebrew of the He- 
brews. With all his evangelical expansiveness of spirit, 
and all his antagonism to the false theory of the Jewish sys- 
tem, he yet has taught the things of Christ, and presented 
the universal salvation, under forms of speech and in a cast 
of thought which are derived from the school of the Law. 
Ever} T moment it becomes a more serious question, whether 
this language is to be allowed for, as inaccurate in itself 
but under the circumstances of the case inevitable, or 
whether it is to be insisted on, as the method prepared in 
the purpose of God for the most adequate expression of 
spiritual truth. The question was indeed decided by the 
two facts, that the old covenant itself was a divine ordi- 
nance, and that its historical relations with the new cove- 
nant were a divine provision. Still it was of high impor- 
tance to the clearness and fixedness of the doctrine, that this 
connection between the two covenants should be deliber- 
ately shown to consist, not in rhetorical illustration, but in 
a divinely intended s}'stem of analogies. This is the per- 
manent office of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which, if not 
St. Paul's, is confessedly Pauline, and, apparently on ac- 
count of its uncertified authorship, has usually taken its place 
in succession to his acknowledged writings. In its origin 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 171 

it evidently belongs to the last hour of transition and decis- 
ion, when a large number of men, who were at once Jews 
and Christians, stood perplexed, agitated, and almost dis- 
tracted, as they seemed to feel the ground parting beneath 
their feet, and hardly knew whether to throw themselves 
back on that which was receding, or forward on that to 
which they were called to cling. In an intense sympathy 
with this perplexity, and even anguish, prevailing in the 
Hebrew-Christian mind, and in an intense anxiety as to its 
issue, the Epistle was written ; a living voice of power in a 
time of change and fear, j 7 et a comprehensive exposition of 
the advancing course of revelation, and of the relation be- 
tween its two great stages. But more particularly is it to 
be noticed here, that this Epistle throws a stronger light 
than other writings had done upon the progress of doctrine 
during the Christian period itself. For, first, it expressly 
recognizes the fact that " the word of the beginning of 
Christ" 1 had been enlarged by intervening teaching into a 
"perfection," which many of those who are here addressed 
had sinfully and shamefully failed to receive ; the teachers 
sent from God having wrought out for them full expositions 
of truth, to which their old prepossessions had closed their 
hearts. And, secondly, it exhibits the further fact, that 
this perfecting of the truth, by the full and definite inter- 
pretation of the principles of the Gospel, had been accom- 
plished by means of the true reading of the Old Testament 
in the light of the knowledge of Christ. iU) 

3. From the Pauline writings we pass to the collection of 

1 Heb. vi. 1. iHpsvreg tov rrjg apxvG tov ~KpiOTov loyov £m r^v TeheioTTjTa 
<f>epufieda : " Leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go 
on to perfection." 



172 TELE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

the Catholic Epistles. For all internal reasons they are 
better read in the place which they occupy in our Bibles 
than that in which the older manuscripts generally assign 
them, preceding the Epistles of St. Paul ; for they are in 
effect the confirmation and the supplement of his doctrine. 1 
This character cannot here be proved, and it scarcely 
needs to be, for it is now in the main acknowledged. The 
personal characteristics of these writers are unlike those of 
St. Paul ; the aspects of the truth are different, but the sub- 
stance and the features are the same. Each writer, by the 
strongly distinguished lines of his own individuality, makes 
still more conspicuous the unity of the common faith. 

The Epistle of St. James alone makes at first sight an 
opposite impression, and instead of harmonizing with the 
full development of evangelical doctrine, may appear to 
belong to an earlier, or rather a retrograde stage ; and if 
taken as an intended exposition of the essential features of 
Christian truth, it might be thought to imply an Ebionite 
view of the Gospel, and even to betray an Ebionite origin. 
But the careful and candid student sees that the language 
emplo3 T ed distinctly presupposes the evangelical doctrine, 
and by supplementing other expositions of it does in fact 
acknowledge and confirm them. (13) 

The harmony of the Epistles of St. Peter and St. John 
with the Pauline doctrine is sufficiently obvious, and the 
former Apostle not only practically (as is the case in an 
eminent degree) , but pointedly and professedly sets his seal 
to the development which the Gospel had received in the 
teaching of the Apostle to the Gentiles, assuring those who 
had accepted the doctrine that " this is the true grace of 

1 See the latter part of Note I. in reference to this arraugement. 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 173 

God wherein ye stand ; " x and again, instructing those to 
whom the " beloved brother Paul" had written " according 
to the wisdom given unto him," that the} 7 are to regard 
those writings as on a level with " the other Scriptures." 2 

On the Gospel doctrine itself, which is thus confirmed, a 
fresh light seems to be thrown by the spirit of these precious 
Epistles, the faith expounded by St. Paul kindling into fer- 
vent Jwpe in the words of St. Peter, and expanding into 
sublime love in those of St. John. At the same time the 
reader cannot fail to note how these writings of the original 
Apostles, by express references, by borrowed language, and 
by their whole spirit, seem to bind the doctrine which the 
Epistles have developed to the Gospels in which it first 
began to be opened. Finally, he may observe with admira- 
tion the singular fitness of the few words of St. Jude to close 
the series of writings, through which the faith has been 
wrought out and consigned to the Church forever. It only 
remains for our last instructor to exhort us " earnestly to 
contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints;" to 
warn us of the dangers of relapse ; to entreat us "to build 
ourselves up on our holy faith, and praying in the Holy 
Ghost to keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the 
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life ; " and, 
finally, to commend us "to him who is able to keep us from 
falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of 
his glory with exceeding joy." 

With such charges, warnings, and commendatory prayers 
is the didactic portion of the New Testament left in our 
hands. We have now observed its function in the whole 
scheme of instruction, as addressed to those who have be- 

1 1 Peter v. 12. * 2 Peter iii. 16. 

15* 



174 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

lieved the Gospel, for the furtherance and perfecting of 
their education in Christ. We have seen that it is adapted 
to this work by the epistolary form, which contemplates 
those who are addressed as partakers in the same life with 
those who address them, and as brethren in the family of 
God. Secondly, by the metJiod adopted, in which the 
teacher, putting forth all the varieties of his own mental 
energies, exercises and trains the spiritual faculties of those 
who are taught, while conducting them to definite and ascer- 
tained conclusions. Thirdly, by the appointment of the 
chief author, whose proper work only commences at the 
point where the testimony of the manifestation of Christ in 
the flesh is finished, and passes into the testimony of his 
present relations with men in the spirit. Lastty, by the 
relative characters of the collected writings, whereby the 
exigencies of the spiritual life are met at every point and 
provided for in natural though informal succession. 

In concluding this survey I would sugest two questions 
which it may well leave upon our minds. First, What is our 
own experience of the exigencies thus provided for? The 
Gospel history accepted as true, some general statements 
concerning its consequences adopted, and a position in the 
Christian community assumed — these things seem to sat- 
isfy the minds of many among us. We see that the word 
of God does not contemplate so sudden and easy a satisfac- 
tion. It supposes that the believer in Jesus has entered on 
a vast world of life and thought. It supposes the exist- 
ence of inquiries, anxieties, aspirations. It supposes a 
mind thoroughly aroused by the importance, the grandeur, 
and the glory of the truth which has come before it — a 
mind which purposes with itself " to apprehend the things 
for which also it is apprehended of Christ Jesus." It sup- 



LECT. VI. THE EPISTLES. 175 

poses the existence of hindrances, difficulties, oppositions 
— things to be struggled through, as well as things to be 
striven after. What do you know of all this ? Till you do 
know something of it, the Epistles are not for you. They 
are not written to suit a cool indifference, or to gratify a 
taste for discussion. The real condition for their use is the 
existence of that inward life for the necessities of which 
they provide. A man must turn the pages of the Epistle to 
the Romans with a sense of perplexity and distaste, if his 
own heart own no serious inquiry after the righteousness of 
God. The discovery in the Epistle to the Hebrews of all 
that is transacted within the veil, by the effectual ministry 
of the eternal Priest, can have for him but the slight inter- 
est which may attach to ingenious typology, if he feel no 
daily necessity to come himself to the throne of grace to 
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need ; and 
the glorious standard of Christian character which every 
Epistle offers can but repel him, as something overstrained 
and inapplicable to actual life, if he have not recognized 
himself as bought with the precious blood and risen again 
with Christ. The whole scheme and course of teaching, 
meant for those who are " called to be saints," loses not 
only its force but its meaning for those who have no such 
project as those words imply. 

The second question is this : If the exigencies which are 
thus supposed are really felt by us, what use do we make 
of the word which is given to meet them ? We have seen 
that that word does not lead us to the entrance of the Chris- 
tian life and then leave us at the threshold. It recognizes 
fully, it warmly enters into, all those anxious questions 
which arise in your hearts, as to the real nature of the work 
of Christ in which you are taught to trust, of that salvation 



176 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VI. 

which you desire to receive, of that life which you are 
called to lead, of those relations to God in which you are 
placed, of those great prospects which lie before you. And 
shall negligence or distrust deprive you of the assistance 
thus prepared, and leave you to encounter the thoughts 
which crowd upon the awakened soul, as if you had to deal 
with those onty by means of your own resources ? You are 
not so left. For those within the Church, those who have 
received Christ Jesus the Lord, those who own the holy 
calling, all this teaching is made ready. To them it is 
expressly addressed, and for their various necessities it is 
adapted. But it does not yield its true uses to a critical 
reference or an occasional consultation ; only through a con- 
stant companionship and familiar intercourse does it tell 
effectually for its destined ends, and accomplish the blessed 
transformation of the poverty and vanity of this poor hu- 
man life into the glory and reality of a life that is in Christ. 



LECTUBE VII. 

THE EPISTLES. 

OF HIM ARE TE IN CHRIST JESUS. — 1 Cor. I. 30. 

I take this text, because it appears to me to contain the 
fundamental idea which underlies the whole range of the 
Epistles, and gives the specific character to their doctrine. 

The specific character of their doctrine, as compared with 
the preceding parts of the New Testament, is the question 
which lies before me now. 

Some kind of doctrinal progress must necessarily be at- 
tributed to these writings, if their words are taken as words 
of God ; for everything in them which is not simple repeti- 
tion must be in some sense addition, either giving informa- 
tion wholly new, or explaining, enlarging, and arranging 
that which former teachings had imparted. 

It would therefore be fit, at the point which these Lec- 
tures have reached, to make some collection of these addi- 
tions, or rather some selection of the chief instances of 
them ; unless it should appear that this stage of the prog- 
ress of doctrine is marked by such distinctive features, as 
suffice by themselves to describe the nature of the advance 
which has been made, and to supersede the accumulation of 
particulars by the peculiarity of a general character. 

I. In what has been already advanced the existence of 
such a general character has been implied, and its nature 
has been in some degree defined. 

We have looked upon the doctrine of the Gospels as the 

177 



178 THE PEOGKESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

manifestation of Christ to men, giving the conditions and 
the materials of a spiritual life which was to follow. We 
have looked upon the doctrine of the Acts of the Apostles, 
as the preaching of Christ to men, summing up the results 
of his appearing, proclaiming him with the witness of the 
Spirit, and gathering those who receive him into the form 
and the life of a Church. We have observed that the Epis- 
tles take up the line of teaching at this point, being a voice 
within that Church to those who are themselves within it ; 
that they are appropriated by their superscriptions to those 
who are already called, separated, and sanctified in Christ ; 
that they are marked by their form and method as instru- 
ments of education to the spiritual life after it has begun ; 
and that the appointment of their chief author implies the 
purpose of teaching things which followed the completion 
of the work of Christ on earth, in his offices and ministra- 
tions in heaven, and in the dispensation of the Spirit 
amongst men. If the actual contents of the Epistles cor- 
respond with these intimations, their doctrine must neces- 
sarily bear a specific character as compared with that of the 
Gospels and the Acts. As the manifestation of Christ when 
it was finished made way for the preaching of Christ, so the 
preaching of Christ when it has been received opens into 
the life in Christ. The Epistles presuppose the existence 
of this life, both in the community and in the individual, 
and their doctrine is directed to educate and develop it. 
The fundamental thought in every page is that expressed 
in my text, " Of him are ye in Christ Jesus." 

They are litle words, but they make an announcement of 
vast significance and boundless consequences. Writer 
and readers regard themselves and each other as having 
now entered on an existence, which for spiritual beings 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 179 

seems the only real one. " Ye are" says the Apostle. 
After speaking of " things that are not," and of "things 
that are," he turns to his fellow-believers, and says, " but 
ye are" And whence is this existence found? From 
Mm, 1 from God himself, as its immediate origin and still 
continuous author. And ivliere is it found? "In Christ 
Jesus." 

In Christ Jesus ! As the simple voice of faith this word 
is ever uttered with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
But preacher or commentator, who may attempt to sound 
the depths or open the treasures of its meaning, must feel 
his tongue falter under the sense of the inadequacy of 
every explaining word. Let us, however, at least assert 
the reality of the fact which it expresses, for it is no sym- 
bolical form of speech, but the statement of a fact, as real 
in regard to the spirit as the fact of our being in the world 
is real in regard to the body. 

How does the vivid consciousness of this reality glow in 
the pages which are before us now ! Christ has been 
manifested, preached, received ; and what is the state 
which has ensued, as exhibited in the consciousness of 
those who have received them ? They are not merely pro- 
fessors of his name, learners of his doctrine, followers of 
his example, sharers in his gifts. I may go further. They 
are not merely men ransomed by his death, or destined 
for his glory. These are all external kinds of connection, 
in which our separate life is related to his life only as 
one man's life may be related to another's by the effect 
of what he teaches, of what he gives, and of what he 
does. But it is assumed in the Epistles, that believers in 

1 e£ avTOV. 



180 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

Jesus are no longer living a life that is only external, 
and, as it were, parallel to his life. They are in Christ 
Jesus, and he also is in them. 

At the close of his manifestation he foretold a state of 
consciousness, which his disciples had not attained while 
he was with them in the flesh, but which would be enjoyed 
by them under the succeeding dispensation. "At that 
day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, 
and I in you." 1 The language of the Epistles is the echo 
of this promise. It is the voice of those who have entered 
on the predicted knowledge, and who view all subjects in 
the light of it. 

They know that the Lord Jesus " is in the Father; " or, 
as it is more fully and distinctly expressed by himself, that 
"he is in the Father, and the Father in him;" 2 not indeed 
with that character of knowledge which belongs to a later 
age, when abstract dogmatic statements were fashioned 
from their warm and living words, but rather with that 
kind of knowledge, to secure which to the Church forever 
those statements were needed and were framed. These 
writers know the truth, that the Father is in the Son, as 
constituting the power of the work of Christ on earth ; and 
the truth that the Son is in the Father, as constituting the 
power of his mediation in heaven. On the one side, " God 
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself ; " 3 on 
the other, it is " with Christ in God" 4 that the Christian's 
present life is hid. 

Furthermore, these writers know that believers are in 
Christ and Christ in them, and show that knowledge, not 

i John xiv. 20. 2 Ibid. x. 38 ; xiv. 10 ; and xvii. 21. 

3 2 Cor. v. 19. 4 Col. iii. 3. 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 181 

only by frequent assertions and a universal supposition of 
a close and vital union between the members and the head, 
but by a full development of both the aspects of this union, 
which the words of the Lord present. 

Believers are in Christ, so as to be partakers in all that 
he does, and has, and is. They died with him, and rose 
with him, and live with him, and in him are seated in 
heavenly places. When the eye of God looks on them they 
are found in Christ, and there is no condemnation to those 
that are in him, and they are righteous in his righteousness, 
and loved with the love which rests on him, and are sons 
of God in his sonship, and heirs with him of his inheritance, 
and are soon to be glorified with him in his glory. And 
this standing which they have in Christ, and the present 
and future portion which it secures, are contemplated in 
eternal counsels, and predestined before the foundation of 
the world. 

As the sense of this fact breathes in every page, so also 
does the sense of the correlative fact, that Christ is in those 
who believe; associating his own presence with their whole 
inward and outward life. They know that Jesus Christ is 
in them, except they be reprobates 1 (rejected ones). They 
live, yet not they, but Christ liveth in them, 2 and he 3 is their 
strength and their song. 4 This indwelling of Christ is by 
the Holy Ghost, so that the same passages speak inter- 
changeably of the Spirit being in us, and of Christ being 
in us ; 5 or of the Holy Ghost being in us, and our members 
being the members of Christ: 6 and so this word, "I in 
you" includes the whole life of the Spirit in man, with all 

i 2 Cor. xiii. 5: 2 Gal. ii. 20. 3 The evSwdmov XpCaros. 

4 Phil. iv. 13. 5 Rom. viii. 9, 10. 6 1 Cor. vi. 15, 19. 

16 



182 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. VII. 

its discoveries, impulses, and achievements, its victory over 
the world, its conversation in heaven, and earnest of the 
final inheritance. 

Thus, through the different but correlative relations rep- 
resented by the words, "Ye in me, and I in you," human 
life is constituted a life in Christ; and, through the still 
higher mystery of the union of the Father and the Son, is 
thereby revealed as a life in God. " At that day ye shall 
know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." 
Yes ! as we pass through the Epistles, we see that that 
day is come, and that the consciousness thus predicted has 
been attained. It is no flight of mysterious rhetoric, but 
the brief expression of the settled, habitual, fundamental 
view of the state of those who are here addressed, " Of him 
are ye in Christ Jesus." 

This idea underlies all that is said, gives the point of 
view from which every subject is regarded, and supplies 
the standard of character and the rules of conduct. We 
move in a new world of thought, and are raised to a level 
of doctrine which we had not reached before, though the 
Gospels had prepared us for it, and the Acts had led us 
towards it. In the Gospels we have stood like men who 
watch the rising of some great edifice, and who grow 
familiar with the outlines and the details of its exterior 
aspect. In the preaching of the Acts we have seen the 
doors thrown open, and joined the men who flock into it as 
their refuge and their home. In the Epistles we are 
actually within it, sheltered by its roof, encompassed by 
its walls ; we pass, as it were, from chamber to chamber, 
beholding the extent of its internal arrangements and the 
abundance of all things provided for our use. We are here 
" in Christ Jesus." That is the account of the difference 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 183 

which we feel, and which lies in the opening out of the 
whole effect of the Gospel, rather than in additions made to 
its particular doctrines. The presence which was lately 
before our eyes, and drew us towards itself, now absorbs 
and wraps us round, and has become the ground on which 
we stand, the air which we breathe, the element in which 
we live and move and have our being. 

The Churches are "in Christ;" the persons are "in 
Christ." They are "found in Christ" and " preserved in 
Christ." They are "saved" and "sanctified in Christ;" 
are "rooted, built up," and "made perfect in Christ." 
Their ways are " wa} r s that be in Christ ; " their conversa- 
tion is " a good conversation" in Christ ; their faith, hope, 
love, joy, their whole life is " in Christ." They think, they 
speak, they walk " in Christ." They labor and suffer, they 
sorrow and rejoice, they conquer and triumph " in the 
Lord." The}' receive each other and love each other "in 
the Lord." The fundamental relations, the primal duties 
of life, have been drawn within the same circle. "The 
man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the 
man in the Lord." l Wives submit themselves to their 
husbands " in the Lord ; " children obey their parents " in 
the Lord." The broadest distinctions vanish in the com- 
mon bond of this all-embracing relation. " As many as 
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ ; there 
is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither bond nor free, 
there is neither male nor female ; they are all one in Christ 
Jesus." 2 The influence of it extends over the whole field 
of action, and men " do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God and the Father by him." The truth 

J lCor. xi. 11. 2 Gal. iii. 28. 



184 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

which they hold is " the truth as it is in Jesus ;" the will 
by which they guide themselves is "the will of God in 
Christ Jesus concerning them." Finally, this character of 
existence is not changed by that which changes all besides. 
Those who have entered on it depart, but they " die in the 
Lord," they " sleep in Jesus," they are " the dead in 
Christ;" and "when he shall appear," thej^ will appear; 
and when he comes, " God shall bring them with him," 
and they shall " reign in life by one — Jesus Christ." 

Pardon, my brethren, the necessarily slight and rapid 
manner in which you have now been reminded of this per- 
vading characteristic of the Apostolic writings. Yet, 
swiftly as I am compelled to proceed, I must delay a mo- 
ment ; for there is a question which one who rehearses such 
words ought not to leave unspoken. What correspondence 
is there between our own habit of thought and the Christian 
consciousness which speaks in these pages ? I mean, not 
in regard to particular doctrines or precepts, but in regard 
to that one fact which embraces them all — that which the 
text expresses, " Of him are ye in Christ Jesus." That is 
not the statement of a doctrine, but the summary of a life. 
Surely I must ask — Is it a life which I am living now? I 
glance over these pages, and see the holy and beloved name 
shining in every part of them, and mingling its presence 
with every thought and feeling, every purpose and hope. 
I see an ever-present consciousness of being in Christ, and 
a habit of viewing all things in him. Must I not look down 
into my heart, and ask whether my own inward life bears 
this character? Let me accept nothing in exchange for 
this. Men bid me live in duty and truth, in purity and 
love They do well. But the Gospel does better ; calling 
me to live in Christ, and to find in him the enjoj-ment of 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 185 

all that I would possess and the realization of all that I 
would become. In suggesting these personal inquiries, I 
have scarcely taken a step out of my way, for the very 
point before us is this, that the progress of doctrine in the 
Epistles is constituted, not in the first place by the com- 
munication of new information, but by the recognition of a 
spiritual state which has been attained, and by the educa- 
tion of the spiritual life pertaining to it. 

II. It now remains for me to point out that this funda- 
mental character does of itself constitute a visible advance 
in the several parts of doctrine, both changing their aspect, 
and enlarging their bounds ; and for this purpose it is neces- 
sary to select some particular subjects in which this change 
may be studied. 

1. We turn first to the primary doctrine of salvation by 
Jesus Christ. In the Gospels this doctrine appears in its 
most general form. To a great degree it is t}^pically repre- 
sented, through the bodily healing or saving which points 
to the like work in the world of spirit, On some occasions 
that faith, by which men are "made whole" or " saved" 
(as the word is variously rendered) in the lower sense, is 
declared to be the means of the higher blessing, and to 
have secured for the applicant "forgiveness of sins." To 
these intimations, definite invitations and assertions are 
added. He who speaks is " come to save the world ;" " to 
seek and to save that which is lost ; " men are called to 
"come to him that they may have life;" "he that be- 
lieveth on him is not condemned;" "he shall never per- 
ish, but have everlasting life : " and from time to time 
some words are spoken which suggest the method in 
which the salvation is wrought — words which tell of " the 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world ; " of 

16* 



186 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. VII. 

being " lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness/' that 
those who look may live ; of " life given as a ransom for 
manj T ; " and of " the blood of a new covenant shed for 
the remission of sins." But, in reaching the Epistles, who 
is not struck with the definiteness and development which 
the whole doctrine, especially this last part of it, has ob- 
tained. Here men have already received the great truth 
in its first aspect, and have believed on the Lord Jesus 
for the remission of sins. Their minds, however, must 
work ; and the\ T search into the real depth and extent of 
the general assurances in which their souls at first found 
rest and joy. The word of God guides them through its 
commissioned interpreters. Thus the grounds of this sal- 
vation in the work of Christ, and the means of it in their 
own faith, are brought clearly and vividly into view, and 
the attention is fixed upon the way in which men, being sin- 
ful, are made the righteousness of God. In every variety 
of expression the reality of the atoning work of Christ is 
made sure ; in eveiy connection of thought it is made pres- 
ent. God "has set him forth to be a propitiation for sins 
through faith in his blood;" 1 "We are reconciled unto 
God by the death of his Son ; " 2 " We are justified in his 
blood;" 3 " We have redemption through his blood, even 
the forgiveness of sins ; " 4 we, " who were far off, are made 
nigh by the blood of Christ ; " 5 " He hath made him to be 
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him ; " 6 " Christ hath redeemed us 
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; " 7 "By 

1 Rom. iii. 25. 2 Ibid. v. 10. 3 Ibid. v. 9. 

4 Eph. i. 7. 5 Ibid. ii. 13. 6 2 Cor. v. 21. 

' GslI. iii. 13. 



LECT. VII. the EPISTLES. 187 

his own blood he entered in once to the holy place, having 
obtained eternal redemption for us ; " x " He was once of- 
fered to bear the sins of many ; " 2 "He put away sin by 
the sacrifice of himself;" 3 " He bore our sins in his own 
body on the tree;" 4 "Ye are redeemed by the precious 
blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without 
spot ; " 5 "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
from all sin ; " 6 " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not 
for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 7 

Such is the constant voice of the apostolic teaching, and 
such also is the constant voice of that Christian conscious- 
ness which the apostolic teaching forms and certifies. Those 
who are in Christ are already inmates of that " holy tem- 
ple " which we see reared in the Gospels and opened in the 
Acts ; and for them the altar of the cross is the one central 
object, visible from the remotest precincts, and sanctif3 r ing 
all around it, while the one sacrifice thereon completed is the 
ever-present condition of all which is celebrated or enjoyed 
within. No mist invests the object to which all eyes are 
turned, such as may suggest or excuse the doubt whether 
that object be truly an altar, and the act accomplished on it 
a sacrifice indeed. Not here do we see believers " clinging 
(as it has been expressed) to the ground of fact" under the 
feeling that " inysteiy is the nearest approach that we can 
make to the truth ; that only by indefiniteness can we avoid 
putting words in the place of things ; that we know nothing 
of the objective act on God's part by which he reconciled 
the world to himself, the very description of it as an act 

1 Heb. ix. 12. 2 Ibid. ix. 28. 3 Ibid. ix. 2G. 

4 1 Peter ii. 24. 5 Ibid. i. 19. 6 1 John i. 7. 

' 1 John ii. 2. 



188 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

being only a figure of speech ; and that we seem to know 
that we never can know anything." 1 Instead of this we 
find a firm unsparing use of various but kindred forms of 
speech, each supplementing and confirming the other, and 
having in the minds of those who use them a recognized 
and settled force, derived from ordinances which they have 
always held to be divine, and which they now understand 
to have been pre-ordained for the very purpose of preparing 
the ideas and the language in which the}' are here express- 
ing the things of Christ. 

Mysteries of course remain ; and the truths delivered, 
however distinct and clear in their central parts, have their 
circumference in regions which the eye cannot reach. I 
only observe that these central parts of the truth of our sal- 
vation become more distinct and clear as we advance beyond 
the threshold of the Gospel ; and that in the Epistles, as 
standing amongst those who are in Christ, we receive a 
fuller interpretation of the things which he spake with his 
lips concerning the salvation which we were to find in him. 

2. Proceed now to another doctrine respecting the Chris- 
tian state — namely, that those who are saved are also sons. 

One chief feature of the teaching in the Gospels is found 
in the word " Father." Jesus appears amongst men in the 
character of the Son. His first spoken word utters the con- 
sciousness of that relation, " Wist ye not that I must be 
among the things of my Father ? " 2 His first introduction 
to men ratifies it : " This is my beloved Son in whom I am 
well pleased ; " 3 and so he goes forth into the world as the 
Son of the Father. In right of this relation he straightway 

1 Jowett on the Epistles, vol. ii. p. 482. 
5 Luke ii. 49. 3 Matt. iii. 27. 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 189 

associates in it those who receive him : and when, in his 
first instructions, he lifts up his eyes on his disciples to 
teach them the principles of the kingdom of God, he bases 
everything upon this relation between them and their God. 
"Pray to thy Father;" 1 "Thy Father will reward;" 2 
"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of;" 3 
" That ye may glorify your Father ; " 4 " That ye may be 
the children of your Father which is in heaven ; " 5 "Be ye 
perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 6 So 
the whole course of his teaching tends to that intertwining 
of his own relation to God with theirs, which is finally ex- 
pressed on the eve of his departure : " My Father and your 
Father, my God and your God." 7 And this language is 
not a mere general declaration of the universal fatherhood 
of God ; for it is always addressed to his disciples as sucJi, 
to the little flock whom the world will persecute, and to 
whom " it is their Father's good pleasure to give the king- 
dom : " 8 and it is further declared that the consciousness 
of it is only awakened in those who hear his word, for "no 
man knoweth the Father save the Son. and he to whomso- 
ever the Son will reveal him ; " 9 and the right to enjoy and 
feel this relation is represented by St. John as a gift to 
those who receive Mm, and believe in him: "To as many 
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons 
of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God." 10 

1 Matt. vi. 6. 2 Ibid. 4. 3 Ibid. 8. 

4 Matt. v. 16. 5 Ibid. 45. « Ibid. 48. 

1 Jolm xx. 17. 8 Luke xii. 32. 9 Matt. xi. 27. 
10 John i. 12. 



190 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

What advance is made in the Epistles upon the doctrine 
thus announced? It appears there in a fuller /orm, and 
with plainer statements of its ground in the work of 
Christ, who is the Son sent forth, " made under the law to 
redeem * those who were under the law, in order that 2 we 
might receive the adoption of sons ; " 3 and with stronger 
assertions of the means, on our part, through which the 
sonship is enjoyed. " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is 
the Christ is born of God ; " 4 " Ye are all the children of 
God by faith in Christ Jesus." 6 But the substantive addi- 
tion made to the doctrine lies in the region of consciousness, 
and in the experience of the inward life. Believers are in 
Christ, and so are sons of God, but, having become so, they 
find that Christ also is in them, giving them the mind 
of sons and the sense of their sonship. "Because ye are 
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your 
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." 6 "The Spirit itself wit* 
nesseth with our spirit, that we are the children of God : 
and if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
with Christ." 7 This revelation is not only seen in the par- 
ticular passages which assert it, but its presence is felt in 
all parts of the Apostolic writings, and as we read we be- 
come more and more sensible that Christ in the Spirit has 
perfected his teaching in the flesh, and that those who are 
in him have now learned all that was meant by his word 
" Your Father." 

3. Turning now to the department of duties, let us take 
the first of them — the personal approach to God in worship, 
prayer, and praise. 

1 Buy OUt, ^ayopoicrri. 2 Iva. 3 Gal. IV. 4. 

4 1 John v. 1. 5 Gal. iii. 26. 6 Ibid. iv. 5. 

7 Rom. viii. 16, 17. 



LECT. VII. . THE EPISTLES. 191 

Speaking often on this subject, our Lord instructs us to 
come to God as a Father, and as one who seeth in secret ; x 
to worship in spirit and in truth ; 2 to pray always, and not 
to faint ; 3 to pray as sinners who need mercy ; 4 as children 
who are sure to be heard ; 5 and whatsoever things we ask to 
believe that we receive them. 6 In his last discourse words 
are dropped, which seem to place the whole subject on a 
fresh basis : " No man cometh unto the Father but by me;" 
" If }'e shall ask anything in my name, /will do it. Hith- 
erto ye have asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall 
receive, that } r our jo} r may be full." 7 

In the Epistles these (at the time) anticipatory words 
have found their explanation ; and thereby all the previous 
instruction is full}' realized. Men are in Christ Jesus, and 
therefore they come to God by him. The whole character 
of worship and prayer is now derived from the conscious- 
ness that " through him we have access by one Spirit unto 
the Father." 8 God is approached as a Father indeed, be- 
cause he is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom 
the worshipper is found : and therefore the two names are 
united in every voice and almost every mention of prayer. 
Through him also we have the access, 9 or, as it is soon af- 
terwards expressed, " access with confidence by the faith 
of him." 10 The right of entrance is secured, and the means 
by which it was secured are present to the mind. We have 
" boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." u 
Sacrifice has been offered, the barriers are gone, a new and 
living way is opened. And yet, further, there is (as the 

1 Matt. vi. 8. 2 John iv. 24. 3 Luke xviii. 1. 

4 Luke xviii. 13. 5 Ibid. xi. 11-13. 6 Mark xi. 24. 
1 John xiv. G, 14, and xvi. 23, 24. 8 Eph. ii. 18. 

9 tt,v npoaayuyrjv. 10 Eph. ill. 12. " Heb. X. 19. 



192 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

word implies) a present introduction by the living interven- 
tion of an eternal Priest, ministering in the true sanctuary, 
with active mediation and perpetual intercessions for all 
who come to God b} 7 him. Furthermore, this access, which 
is through the Son, is also " by one Spirit." To those who 
are in Christ the Holy Ghost is given, as the consequence 
of their union with him, and thus there is the Divine pres- 
ence in the soul of the worshipper ; and so, in the highest 
and most perfect sense, he worships the Father in spirit and 
in truth, and prays in the Holy Ghost, " the Spirit itself 
helping his infirmities, when he knows not what he should 
pray for as he ought, and making intercession for him with 
groaniugs that cannot be uttered." 1 Passing into the midst 
of such discoveries as these, we feel that the doctrine of 
prayer has attained its perfect form, by combination with 
the doctrine of the Trinit}-, and that the highest fulfilment 
of all which had been enjoined upon those who were with 
Jesus has become possible for those who now are in him. 

4. The ethical teaching of the New Testament shall be 
my last example. There also the like kind of advance 
appears. I need not recall by any special references the 
characteristic features of our Lord's moral teaching in the 
Gospels. They are present to all our minds. That stand- 
ard of character and rule of conduct have secured the rever- 
entail recognition of the common conscience of mankind, 
and the genuine admiration of unbelief itself. It has been 
felt, even in unlikely quarters, that in those holy discourses 
and that perfect example, human character appears in a 
state of purity and elevation which is nowhere else to be 
seen : and especially that this moral s} T stem shines most 

1 Rom. viii. 2G. 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 193 

brightly in those points where other systems fail, namely, 
the truthfulness of inward cleansing, the majesty of lowli- 
ness, and the glory of love. Can there be advance on 
such a code as this, given by the Lord himself, when, as a 
man among men, he showed and taught what human per- 
fection is? 

Yet when we pass to the Epistles we are sensible of a 
momentous change. The standard is the same in its gen- 
eral elevation and in the proportions of its several parts. 
Where then is the change ? I answer, in the position of those 
who are to use it, in the relations of which they are now con- 
scious, and therefore in the motives by which they are to be 
influenced, and in the powers which they are supposed to 
possess. " Our duties," as Bishop Butler observes, "arise 
out of our relations." l Therefore every revelation of un- 
known relations must affect in some way the character of 
our duties. This truth comes strikingly into view as we 
follow the unfolding of the spiritual relations of believers 
to their Lord. 

Observe first the position which the Lord Jesus attributes 
to those whom he teaches, and the consequent motives to 
which he appeals, in those instructions in righteousness 
which he gave in the da} T s of his flesh. He urges the special 
relations in which those who have joined him stand. They 
are under peculiar obligations, and a peculiar government. 
They are Ids disciples, 2 and the children of their Father; 3 
they must " do more than others." 4 He charges them as 
being their master, and counsels them as being their friend ; 
and, as time goes on, uses the power of his example, and 



1 Analogy, Part II. chap. i. sect. 2. 

2 Luke xiv. 26, 27, 43. 3 Matt. v. 45. 4 Ibid. 47. 

17 



194 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LeCT. VII. 

at last appeals to the .claims of his love: " I have given 
you an example, that ye should do as I have done to 
you ; " x "As I have loved you, that } T e love one another ;" 3 
then finally opens that deeper relation, from which their 
future fruitfulness must be derived: "Abide in me, and I 
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it 
abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me." 3 

That last saying, which was at the time a parable, they 
soon knew as a fact. When the redemption was completed, 
and he was gone from their side, they found themselves in 
a closer and deeper union with him than they had under- 
stood before. Henceforth it was in the relations with him, 
on which they had entered in the Spirit, that they found 
both the motives of duty and the power for its fulfilment. 

The Epistles first unfold the fulness of the grace in Christ, 
and then besceeh us " by the mercies of God" that we " pre- 
sent our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is our reasonable service." 4 They base their practi- 
cal instructions on the consciousness of being redeemed 
with the precious blood of Christ, 5 of being risen with 
Christ, 6 of having the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. 7 All 
goodness, righteousness, and truth are the fruit of the Spirit 
dwelling in us. We live in the Spirit, therefore we are to 
walk in the Spirit ; " 8 we have received Christ Jesus the 
Lord, therefore we are to walk in him ; 9 we are to flee for- 
nication, because it would defile the members of Christ ; 10 
we are to put away corrupt communications because they 
will grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed 

1 John xiii. 15. 2 Ibid. xv. 12. 8 Ibid. 4. 

* Rom. xii. 1. 6 1 Pet. i. 18. « Col. iii. 1. 

1 Rom. viii. 9, 13. 8 Gal. v. 22-25. • Col. ii. 6. 
10 1 Cor. vi. 19. 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 195 

to the da}>- of redemption ; 1 we are to forgive one another, 
because God for Christ's sake has forgiven us ; 2 to receive 
one another, because Christ received us to the glory of 
God ; 3 and to give to others, because we know the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when he was rich, for our sakes 
became poor, that we through his poverty might be made 
rich ; 4 our conversation is to be worthy of God, who has 
called us to his kingdom and glory ; 5 we are to mortify our 
members upon the earth, because, when Christ, who is our 
life, shall appear, we also shall appear with him in gloiy. 6 

This character of ethical teaching is nowhere more con- 
spicuous than in the calm depths of the Epistle of St. John, 
where the sense of fellowship with God is the ground of 
walking in the light; 7 and "he that saith he abideth in 
Christ ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked ; " 8 
and every man that hath the hope in -Christ purifieth him- 
self, even as he is pure ; 9 and the love which laid down his 
life for us is the reason for a willingness to lay down our 
lives for the brethren ; 10 and the whole spirit of love one to 
another is the reflection of that love of God, wherewith he 
first loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
our sins." u 

We recognize then the advance of ethical doctrine, not 
only or chiefly in its more various and detailed practical 
development, but in the fact that the principles, motives, 
and conduct of life are habitually drawn from the ever- 
present consciousness of the great salvation. It is a habit 
of thought, up to which, but not into which, the moral 

1 Eph. iv. 29, 30. 2 Ibid. 32. 3 Rom. xv. 7. 

4 2 Cor. viii. 9. 6 1 Thess. ii. 12. 6 Col. iii. 4, 5. 

'' 1 John i. 6. 8 Ibid. ii. 8. 9 Ibid. iii. 2, 3. 

10 1 John iii. 16. , » Ibid. iv. 7-10. 



196 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

teaching of Jesus had led us ; a habit of thought, which 
corresponds with those relations towards himself, into which 
men fully entered only when his voice on earth had ceased. 
If there is this visible progress of doctrine in the depart- 
ment of Christian ethics ; if, in respect of distinct exhibi- 
tion of principles and motives, the teaching of the Apostles 
surpasses that of their Lord ; it is plain that this fact is a 
necessity from the nature of the case. Till Jesus was 
glorified, his spiritual relations with believers could not be 
fully unfolded ; and till those relations were apprehended, 
the motives arising out of them could not be called into 
action, nor the life resulting from them be clearly brought 
to light. 

I have now adverted to some principal subjects on which 
wc have received the teaching of God in the New Testa- 
ment, as illustrations of the change which that teaching 
exhibits in the latter part of the volume. If we multiplied 
these examples to the utmost, our comparison of the aspect 
which every separate doctrine bears in the Gospels with 
that which it presents in the Epistles would still have the 
same result. We should still see that the later doctrine 
differs from the earlier, only as being its completion and 
fulfilment. 1 The Lord himself was perfected and glorified, 
not in the da}~s of his flesh, but after they were ended. So 
also was his doctrine ; but as in the later stage he is still 
the same Lord, so' it is still the same doctrine. Its mean- 
ing is defined, its extent is disclosed, its consequences are 
deduced. Parable and proverb are changed into great 
plainness of speech. What seemed a figure is shown as a 
fact. What was intimation of something future is become 

1 7rAj7pu)<7i?. 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. 197 

assertion of something present. Motives are supplied, 
powers are assured, by which that which was enjoined is 
realized, and a life which had seemed impossible is now 
become simply natural. Revelation has only enlarged 
itself to meet necessities and fill capacities which its former 
words had purposely created. The earlier teaching con- 
templated the coming of a day for its disciples, in which 
many things should be said to them which they could not 
bear then. In the later teaching that day is come. At 
first the}' are taught as those who are with Jesus, after- 
wards as those who are in Christ. They know now that 
he is in the Father, and they in him, and he in them. 
When that consciousness is given, a standing-point is 
reached from which new worlds of thought may be sur- 
veyed. The3 T are surveyed in the Epistles, and there the 
chosen teachers spread before us the unsearchable riches of 
Christ. They say to us, " Of him are ye in Christ Jesus ; " 
and they show us what that state implies, of capacities, 
possessions, responsibilities, duties, and destinies; of rela- 
tions to God and man, of connection with things in earth 
and things in heaven. They show that to produce and 
to perfect this state are the ends of the preaching of the 
word, of the institution of the sacraments, of the ordinance 
of the ministry, of the life and order of the Church ; yea, 
of the divine government of the world, and of all that bears 
on human histoiy. "All things are for your sakes;" 1 
" All are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or 
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to 
come ; all are yours ; and } T e are Christ's ; and Christ is 
God's." 2 

1 2 Cor. iv. 15. 2 1 Cor. Hi. 21-23. 

17* 



198 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VII. 

And so the great course of divine teaching has reached 
its highest stage. After slowly moving on, through the 
simple thoughts of patriarchal piety, through the system 
and covenant of the Law, and through the higher spirituality 
of the Prophets, it rose suddenly to a lofty elevation when 
God spake to us in his Son ; and even higher yet when 
the Son ascended back into glory, and sent down the Holy 
Ghost to take up his unfinished word, and open the mys- 
teries which had been hid from ages and generations. 
Each stage of progress based itself on the facts and in- 
structions of that which went before. The Law was given 
to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the Prophets 
spake to those who were under the Law ; Jesus Christ 
came to those who had been taught by the Prophets ; the 
Hoi}' Ghost instructed those who had received Christ. 

Beyond, and outside this course of teaching, lay, and 
still lies, the great world of human beings. Lord, and 
what shall these men do? What is that to thee? Follow 
thou me. 

Oh ! let us follow. It is not the object of revelation to 
answer those inquiries, natural as they are. It is its object 
to lead those to whom it comes into that fulness of knowl- 
edge, and up to those heights of blessing, towards which, 
in its own historical progress, it so steadily advanced, and 
which its final stage attained. 

Let not searchings of heart as to what others shall do, 
or the sense of the thousand questions which must wait for 
their solution a few years longer, divert us from now press- 
ing into that inner circle of experience to which the Word 
of God conducts us. 

There we shall find it true that "he that believe th on 



LECT. VII. THE EPISTLES. ■ 199 

the Son of God hath the witness in himself" 1 There we 
shall repeat within ourselves the words with which the last 
Apostle closes his Epistle : " We know that the Son of God 
is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may 
know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even 
in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal 
life." 2 There we shall feel that we have reached results 
for our own inward life answerable to all the preparations 
which went before — answerable even to the great facts in 
which those preparations culminated, when the Only- 
begotten of the Father came down to earth to take us into 
himself, and returned into glory to unite us to God. 

i 1 John. v. 6. 2 Ibid. 20. 



LECTURE VIII. 

THE APOCALYPSE. 

I JOHN SAW THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, COMING DOWN FROM GOT) 
OUT OF HEAVEN, PREPARED AS A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND.— 

Rev. xxi. 2. 

These words open the last vision of prophecy and the 
last teaching of Scripture. 

It had been the promise of the Lord to his disciples that 
the Holy Ghost, whom he would send to them from the 
Father, should not only lead them into all the truth, but 
should also show them things to come : and we find the 
promise fulfilled in both its parts. The predictions of the 
great transitional discourse, concerning the coming dis- 
pensation of the Spirit, have their permanent justification 
in the canonical books which follow ; and as the Epistles 
respond to the assurance, " He shall lead } T ou into all the 
truth," so does the word, "He shall show you things to 
come," find its distinct fulfilment in the Apocalypse. 
That book continues the line of predictive history running 
through the New Testament, and is the consummation of 
the sure word of prophecy which pervades the Bible as a 
whole. 

I have already had occasion to observe that the words 
spoken by our Lord in the flesh give the substance of all 
the later doctrine, and prove to be, as it were, the heads 
and summaries of chapters which were to be written after- 
wards. As all the great doctrinal features of the Epistles 

200 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 201 

are found in germ in separate sayings of the Lord, so also 
the main outlines of the Apocalypse are given us in par- 
ables and sayings, which trace the future history of his 
kingdom. And more particularly it is to be noticed, that 
this book bears the same relation to the last discourse in 
St. Matthew, which the Epistles bear to the last discourse 
in St. John. In the upper room where the last Passover 
and the first Eucharist had been celebrated, and in the 
midst of the little company which then represented the 
Christian Church, the Lord spoke the words which opened 
the mystery of the spiritual life, a mystery afterwards to 
be fully 1 - unfolded by the Holy Ghost, in the day when they 
would know that he was in the Father, and they in him and 
he in them. Sitting on the Mount of Olives with Jerusalem 
spread before him, and questioned as to the sign of his 
coming and of the winding up of the age, he gave the out- 
lines of a prophetic history, which contained the substance, 
bore the character, and must rule the interpretation, of the 
later and larger revelation. 

Again, as in the case of the doctrinal teaching, so in the 
case of the prophetical, its unity is assured to us by the 
testimonies that the teacher is the same in the later as in 
the earlier stage. Not only do we find in the spoken words 
of the Lord the condensed substance of that which follows ; 
not only do we hear from him, that this part of his teach- 
ing is to be continued by the Holy Ghost, whom he will 
send to show us things to come ; but a peculiar care is 
taken in this last communication from heaven, to bring 
fully before the mind of the Church the reality of the 
presence of the Lord himself in his revealing word. " The 
revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to show 
unto his servants the things which must come to pass," is a 



202 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

repetition, and a particular application, of that assurance 
on which all the Gospel rests, " I have given unto them the 
words which thou gavest me." Even the visible discovery 
of this fact is not withheld. If Paul, as the great expositor 
of the present spiritual life, had seen Jesus Christ himself, 
and received immediately from the Lord that which he had 
delivered unto men ; so John, as the prophet of the things 
to come, saw the well-remembered form again, surrounded 
with the symbols of majesty and judgment, and looked 
upon his countenance, now like the sun shining in his # 
strength, and heard his voice as the sound of many 
waters. 

Thus the continuity of the line of prophecy within the 
canonical books is made as clear as that of the line of doc- 
trine ; both commencing in the words of Jesus in the flesh, 
both perfected by the words of Jesus in the Spirit. 

But it may be asked, If the line of prophecy is to be 
distinguished from the line of doctrine, what place can the 
former subject claim in Lectures which are appropriated to 
the latter? 

Taking prophecy as predicted fact (however partially 
discovered or s3*mbolically disguised), it will stand in the 
same relation to doctrine as is held by history or recorded 
fact. In the doctrine of the Gospel that relation is the 
very closest ; for it is a doctrine which rests upon events. 
Its foundation is in facts which have come to pass, and 
will yet come to pass. Jesus died — he ascended — he 
will come again — he will reign in glory. These are ex- 
ternal facts. They enter the region of doctrine (as we 
commonly use the term) through their consequences to our- 
selves, through their effect on our own inward conscious- 
ness, through the uses and applications which may be made 



Lect. VIII. the apocalypse. 203 

of them. If Jesus died — to bear our sins ; if he ascended 
— to be manifested in the presence of God for us ; if he 
will come again — to judge our state; if he will reign in 
glory — to perfect our salvation ; then these facts, in them- 
selves external to us, are external no longer. They are 
among the grounds of a whole system of thought and habit 
of feeling, and, when taught as such, they grow into a 
scheme of doctrine. But as in history (I mean that which 
is commonly described as inspired histoiy) all the events 
have not the same connection with doctrine, but some only 
an indirect and remote one, so also is it in prophecy ; and 
particular facts, or a whole series of events, may be inti- 
mated in the way of prediction for other reasons, but not 
for any immediate bearing which they have upon doctrine. 

It results from these observations that the progress of 
prophecy, taken as a whole, is so bound up with the prog- 
ress of doctrine, that the enlargement of the one must in 
some degree involve the enlargement of the other. It also 
results that the one is still to be distinguished from the 
other, and therefore that it does not belong to such an in- 
quiry as I now pursue to trace the details of a predicted 
course of events. 

I am free then from all necessities of detailed apocalyptic 
interpretation ; having only to render some account of the 
general doctrinal bearing of this revelation of things to 
come, and to point out what additions of that kind are 
made in the last book, to the treasures which the preceding 
documents have accumulated for our use. The separate 
accessions of information it would take long to gather, but 
their general character is visible at once. 

I. The former Scriptures have revealed the Lord Jesus 
Christ as the Saviour, not only of individual souls, but also 



204 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. L.ECT. VIII. 

of " the body, the Church." The final result of his appear- 
ing is shown not only in the peace, the holiness, the partici- 
pation and inherence in him of each separate person, but 
in the formation of a corporate existence, a society in 
which man is perfected, a kingdom in which God is glori- 
fied. The parables and sayings of the Gospels present this 
kingdom of God as having its own life and end, its own 
history and destiny, in which those of its individual mem- 
bers are involved. Soon its visible shape appears. A 
society is formed, and, if glorious things were spoken of 
the city of God under the old covenant, still more glorious 
things are spoken of this, which is " the house of God," 
"the Church of the living God," 1 " the habitation of God 
through the Spirit." 2 It is not a mere aggregate of 
separate parts, but possesses an organic life, as " the body 
of Christ" "fitly joined together and compacted by that 
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual 
working in the measure of every part, making increase of 
the body unto the edifying oi itself in love." 3 It is endued 
With a corporate personality, in which the full results of 
redemption will appear : for it is the spouse of Christ, 
which he loved, and for which he gave himself, and which 
he will present unto himself a glorious Church, " not hav- 
ing spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." 4 In this view, 
the Church is not so much for the sake of the individual, 
as the individual for the sake of the Church. Its perfection 
and gloiy, its full response to the work of Christ, its reali- 
zation of the purposes of God, constitute the end to which 
the existence of each member ministers. This line of 



1 1 Tim. iii. 15. 2 Eph. ii. 22. 

3 Ibid. iv. 16. 4 Ibid. v. 27. 



LECT. YIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 205 

thought runs through the Epistles, and forms a distinct 
advance upon that which works out the development of 
personal salvation. I have now to point out that it is not 
perfected in the Epistles, but demands such a continuance 
and such a close as it receives in the Apocalypse. 

The sense of sharing in a corporate existence, and in a 
history and destinies larger than those which belong to us 
as individuals, tends to throw the mind forward upon a 
course of things to come, through which this various 
history is to run, and these glorious destinies are to be 
reached. More especially is this the case, where there is a 
.strong contrast between the ideal expectations which we 
have formed and the actual realization which at any par- 
ticular time we behold. When present things in a measure 
disappoint us, we turn more eagerly to the brighter future, 
and look beyond the darkened foreground to the light which 
glows on the horizon. Who does not feel, in reading the 
Epistles, that some such sense of present disappointment 
grows upon him, and that such dark shadows are gathering 
on the scene? 

How fair was the morning of the Church ! how swift its 
progress ! what expectations it would have been natural to 
form of the future history which had begun so well ! Doubt- 
less they were formed in many a sanguine heart : but they 
were clouded soon. It became evident that, when the first 
conflicts were passed, others would succeed ; and that the 
long and weary war with the powers of darkness had only 
just begun. The wrestlings " against principalities and 
powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly 
places " 1 were yet to be more painfully felt, and believers 

1 Eph. vi. 12. 



206 THE PPwOGRESS OF DOCTRINE. 1<ECT. VIII. 

were prepared to be "partakers of Christ's sufferings," and 
not to " think it strange concerning the fieiy trial which 
was to try them, as though some strange thing happened 
to them." * 

But worse for the Church than the fightings without were 
the fears within. Men who had long professed the -Gospel 
" had need to be taught again what were the first principles 
of the oracles of God." 2 They were "falling from grace," 
and " turning back to weak and beggarly elements, whereto 
they desired again to be in bondage." 3 " Some had already 
turned aside after Satan," 4 and, where there was no special 
prevalence of error, a coldness and world liness of spirit; 
drew forth the sad reflection, "All seek their own, not the 
things which are Jesus Christ's." 5 Contentions were rife, 
and schisms were spreading ; and men, in the name of Christ 
and of truth, were "provoking one another, envying one 
another." New forms of error began to arise, from the com- 
bination of Christian ideas with the rudiments of the world 
and the vagaries of oriental philosophy. Here were men, 
like Jannes and Jambres who withstood Moses, "resisting 
the truth, reprobate concerning the faith." 6 Here were 
" Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth had 
erred, saying that the resurrection was past already." 7 
Here was the "knowledge falsely so called," 8 teeming with 
a thousand protean forms of falsehood. While the Apostles 
wrote, the actual state and the visible tendencies of things 
showed too plainly what Church history would be ; and, at 
the same time, prophetic intimations made the prospect 

1 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13. 2 Heb. v. 12. 3 Gal. iv. 9 ; v. 4. 
4 1 Tim. v. 15. 5 Phil. ii. 21. 6 2 Tim. iii. 8. 

1 2 Tim. ii. 17. 8 1 Tim. vi. 20. ^evSuw^os ywtavs. 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 207 

still more dark: for " the Spirit spake expressly, that in 
the latter times men would depart from the faith, giving 
heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," 1 — that 
" in the last days grievous times should come," marked by 
a darkness of moral condition which it might have been ex- 
pected that Gospel influences would have dispelled, 2 — that 
"there would be scoffers in the last days, walking after 
their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his 
coining? " 3 — that the day of the Lord would not be " till 
the apostacy had come first, and the man of sin had been 
revealed, the son of perdition, the adversary who exalts 
himself above all that is called God or an object of wor- 
ship, so that he sits in the Temple of God, showing himself 
that he is God." 4 " The mystery of lawlessness was already 
working, and as antichrist should come, even then were 
there many antichrists," 5 men "denying the Father and 
the Son," " denying the Lord that bought them," 6 "turn- 
ing the grace of God into lasciviousness," 7 and "bringing 
on themselves swift destruction." 

I know not how any man, in closing the Epistles, could 
expect to find the subsequent history of the Church essen- 
tially different from what it is. In those writings we seem, 
as it were, not to witness some passing storms which clear 
the air, but to feel the whole atmosphere charged with the 
elements of future tempest and death. Every moment the 
forces of evil show themselves more plainly. They are en- 
countered, but not dissipated. Or, to change the figure, we 
see battles fought by the leaders of our band, but no secu- 

1 1 Tim. iv. 1. 2 2 Tim. hi. 1-5. 3 2 Pet. iii. 3. 

4 2 Thess. ii. 4-7. 5 1 John ii. 18, 22. 6 2 Pet. ii. 1. 
7 Jude 4. 



208 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

rity is promised by their victories. New assaults are being 
prepared ; new tactics will be tried ; new enemies pour on ; 
the distant hills are black with gathering multitudes, and 
the last exhortations of those who fall at their posts call on 
their successors to " endure hardness as good soldiers of 
Jesus Christ," ■ and " earnestly to contend for the faith 
which was once delivered to the saints." 2 

The fact which I observe is not merely that these indica- 
tions of the future are in the Epistles, but that they increase 
as we approach the close, and after the doctrines of the 
Gospel have been fully wrought out, and the fulness of per- 
sonal salvation and the ideal character of the Church have 
been placed in the clearest light, the shadows gather and 
deepen on the external history. The last words of St. Paul 
in the second Epistle to Timoth} r , and those of St. Peter in 
his second Epistle, with the Epistles of St. John and St. 
Jude, breathe the language of a time in which the tenden- 
cies of that history had distinctly shown themselves ; and 
in this respect these writings form a prelude and a passage 
to the Apocalypse. 

Thus we arrive at this book with wants which it is meant 
to supply ; we come to it as men who not only personally 
are in Christ, and who know what as individuals they have 
in him ; but who also, as members of his bod} r , share in a 
corporate life, in the perfection of which they are to be 
made perfect, and in the glory of which their Lord is to be 
glorified. For this perfection and glory we wait in vain, 
among the confusions of the world and the ever-active, ever- 
changing forms of evil. What is the meaning of this wild 
scene ? what is to be its issue ? and what prospect is there 

1 2 Tim. ii. 3. J Jude 3. 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 209 

of the realization of that which we desire ? To such a state 
of mind as this, and to the wants which it involves, this last 
part of the teaching of God is addressed, in accordance with 
that s} r stem of progressive doctrine which I have endeav- 
ored to illustrate, wherein each stage of advance ensues in 
the way of natural sequence from the effect of that which 
preceded it. 

Brethren, I would that this state of mind, these desires 
and wants, which the last revealing word supposes in those 
to whom it comes, did exist more extensively and distinctly 
among us. I think we must all feel that the piety of our 
day encloses itself too much within the limits of indi- 
vidual life. 

That I should be pardoned, saved, and sanctified — that 
I should serve before God, and be accepted in my service 
— that I should die in peace and rest in Christ — that I 
should have confidence and not be ashamed before him at 
his coming — these are worthy desires for an immortal be- 
ing, and for these the Gospel provides. But it provides for 
more than these ; making me the member of a kingdom of 
Christ, and the citizen of a city of God. There ought surely 
to be a consciousness within me corresponding to that posi- 
tion ; there ought to be affections which will associate me 
in spirit with that larger history, in which my own is in- 
cluded ; and which will make me long that the kingdom of 
Christ should come, and the city of God be manifested. 
The blessedness ascribed to him that reads, and those who 
hear, the- words of this prophecy, can belong only to those 
who read it and hear it thus. 

II. Such being the state of mind which the book presup- 
poses, and such the wants to which it is addressed, I have 
now to point out some leading characteristics of its doctrine, 

18* 



210 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

in order to show what are the satisfactions which it pro- 
vides. These characteristics, though distinguished from 
each other, will yet all be found to combine in one. The 
doctrine of the book is a doctrine of consummation. 

1. It is a doctrine of the cause of the consummation. It 
educes the result from one source — the atoning death of 
Jesus. Is this an advance in doctrine? Has not the na- 
ture and efficacy of the great sacrifice been already suffi- 
ciently disclosed ? Yes, certainly, in its bearing on personal 
salvation ; but this book exhibits the connection between 
the personal and the general salvation, in the identity of 
their common cause. The personal salvation for each sev- 
eral soul has been expounded in the Epistles as found in 
Christ Jesus, and more particularly in our redemption to 
God by his blood. In these writings the sacrifice and pro- 
pitiation of his death are ever before our eyes, as the cause 
of our restoration and the source of all our other blessings. 
When, in this book, we pass on from the personal to the 
general life, and are to see the victory secured, and the 
kingdom brought in, we may perhaps expect that the Lord 
will now appear only with ensigns and titles of majest}', as 
the conqueror and the king. It is not so. The opening 
doxology, "To him that loved us and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood" strikes the note of all which is to fol- 
low. When the historic vision begins, one is sought who 
may open the sealed purposes of God and conduct them to 
their end. "Then I beheld, and lo ! in the midst of the 
throne, and the beasts, and the elders, stood ... a 
Lamb as it had been slain" 1 and his appearance wakens the 

1 v. 6-10. This passage is fundamental, as showing the ground 
of the power and the means of the victory, by the intentional con- 
trast Of images. 6 Xetov eviK-qaev . . . ISov apviov iL? e<T<f>ay<j.ei.ov. 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 211 

song, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the 
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
ple, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and 
priests : and we shall reign on the earth." So the vision 
proceeds, and from the beginning to the end, through the 
long conflict, and in the midst of the glorious issue, there 
is still one title for him who conquers, and judges, and 
reigns. It is the Lamb who makes war and overcomes ; 
and from the wrath of the Lamb kings and nations flee. It 
is the Lamb in whose blood his servants also overcome ; in 
whose blood they have washed their robes ; before whom 
they stand in white raiment ; and to whom they ascribe sal- 
vation. In the Lamb's Book of Life the names of the saved 
are written. The Holy City is the bride, the Lamb's wife. 
The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of 
it, and the light of it ; and the river of the water of life 
flows forever from the throne of God and the Lamb. In the 
peculiar title, thus studiously emplo3 T ed, and illustrated by 
the repeated mention of the sla} T ing and the blood, we read 
the doctrine, that the ground of the personal is the ground 
of the general salvation ; that the place which the sacrifice 
of the death of Christ holds in the consciousness of the be- 
liever, is the same which it also occupies in the history of 
the Church, and that he conquers for us, and reigns among 
us, and achieves the restoration of all things, because he has 
first offered himself for us, and is the Lamb of God who 
takes away the sin of the world. 

No view of the death of Jesus which fuses it with the 
rest of his example could have suggested the title by which 
this prophecy so persistently designates the conqueror and 
the king. 



212 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTREN T E. LECT. VIII. 

2. We have here, in the next place, a doctrine of the 
history of the consummation ; I mean that besides a pro- 
phetic record of the facts of the history, we have (what is 
of much higher value) an exposition of the nature of the his- 
tory. The book is a revelation of the connection between 
things that are seen and things that are not seen, between 
things on earth and things in heaven ; a revelation which 
fuses both into one mighty drama, so that the movements 
of human action and the course of visible fact are half 
shrouded, half disclosed, amid the glory and the terror of 
the spiritual agencies at work around us, and of the eternal 
interests which we see involved. We are borne to the 
courts above, and the temple of God is opened in heaven, 
and we behold the events on earth as originating in what 
passes there. There seals are broken, trumpets are sounded, 
and vials are poured out, which rule the changes of the 
Church and of the nations. While we are looking down 
through the rolling mists on things that pass below, we are 
all the time before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and 
among the four and twenty elders, the four living beings, 
and the innumerable company of angels ; and we hear 
voices proceeding out of the throne, the cries of disem- 
bodied spirits, and hallelujahs that roll through the uni- 
verse'. We see further, that there is cause for this partici- 
pation of the world above in the events of the world be- 
low, for it becomes every moment more plain, that the earth 
is the battle-field of the kingdoms of light and darkness. 
There is a far bolder revelation than we have had before of 
the presence and action of the powers of evil. The old Ser- 
pent is on one side as the Lamb is on the other, and the 
same light which shows the movements of the Head and Re- 
deemer of our race, falls also upon those of the enemy and 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 213 

destroyer. In the sense of this connection between things 
seen and things not seen, lies the secret of that awe and 
elevation of mind which we felt as children when we first 
turned these pages ; and the assurance of it has an ever- 
increasing value to him who has painfully sought to test 
the mingled forms of good and ill, and to discern some plan 
and purpose in the confused scene around him. 

After noting the instruction given on the cause and the 
history of the great consummation, I come now to that which 
is given on its constituent parts, namely, the coming of the 
Lord, and the attendant facts of victory, judgment, and 
restoration. 

3. The book is a doctrine of the power and coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. " Behold he cometh with clouds, and 
every eye shall see him." 1 That is the first voice, and the 
keynote of the whole. The Epistles to the seven Churches 
(symbolical representatives of the whole Church in its vari- 
ous conditions) all take their tone from this thought, and 
are the voice of a Lord who will " come quickly." The 
visions which follow draw to the same end, and the last 
voices of the book respond to the first, and attest its subject 
and its purpose. " He which testifieth these things saith, 
Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord 
Jesus." 2 Whatever else the Christian desires is bound up 
in this prospect. The deliverance of the creation from its 
present groans and travail, the redemption of our body, the 
perfection of man in a holy community, and the realization 
in outward things of the tendencies of the renewed nature, 
all these hopes wait on the one hope of " Ms appearing." 
Towards that hope our eyes have been steadily directed in 

1 Rev. i. 7. s Ibid. xxii. 20. 



214 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRIXE. LeCT. VIII. 

the former apostolic writings ; but it is here presented, not 
so much in relation to our personal life as to the kingdom 
of God and to the world itself upon the whole. It appears 
here as the " end of the world," 1 towards which all things 
tend, and which the fuller manifestation of evil and the 
seeming victories of the enemy are themselves ordained to 
prepare. Differences and uncertainties of interpretation 
as to the details of this progressive history still leave us 
under the sense, that it is a history of the power and com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ. This assurance, enjo}'ed at 
all times, grows clearer in the days of trouble, rebuke, and 
blasphemy, and the darkest times which the prophecy fore- 
bodes will be those in which its fullest uses will be found. 

4. The doctrine of the coming is in itself a doctrine of 
victory ; and that character pre-eminently belongs to the 
apocalyptic teaching. " In the world ye shall have tribu- 
lation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." 
These wore the last words of the Lord's last discourse ; and 
ever after we feel their power in the actions, the bearing, 
and the words of his servants. They wrestle against the 
world, and principalities, and powers, but as men who are 
upon the conquering side, and who know that their Lord 
has already overcome these enemies, and triumphed over 
them in his cross. Therefore they also "are more than con- 
querors through him that loved them," 2 and they record 
their conviction, that " whatsoever is born of God overcom- 
eth the world ; and that this is the victory that overcometh 
the world, even our faith." 3 In the Apocalypse this spirit 
is still more distinctly felt ; for there the virtual victory 
becomes a visible victory, both for the Lord and for his peo- 

1 crvvreXeia toO aiavo<;. 2 Rom. Viti. 37. 3 1 John V. 4. 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 215 

pie. Every promise in the seven Epistles is addressed " to 
him that overcometh ; " and the last Epistle unites the vic- 
tory of the servant with the victory of the Lord : "To him 
that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne ; 
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father 
on his throne." 1 When the prophetic visions are to com- 
mence, the opening of the book is represented as the result 
of victory, 2 The first vision presents one who " goes forth 
conquering and to conquer ; " and then, through all the 
changes of the conflict, we have the anticipations and pre- 
sages of final victory. We are told of those who " overcome 
by the blood of the Lamb ; " 3 we hear their shout of triumph, 
and see the palms in their hands ; until in the last crisis the 
conquering armies of heaven sweep into sight, following 
the victor who has " on his vesture and on his thigh a name 
written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 4 

5. But victory for one side is overthrow and condemna- 
tion for the other ; so that we have here also a doctrine of 
judgment. " The prince of this world is judged." That 
saying might stand as the summary of a large part of the 
book. He is judged — judged as the prince of this world — 
and this world is involved in his judgment. The reality of 
some possession of this world by the power of evil, and the 

1 Rev. iii. 21. 

2 EeV. V. 5. iSov e vi/CTjcrev 6 \eoov 6 Siv e/c ttj? <f>v\rj<; 'lovSa avolgai to j3ij3Aiov. 

" Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to open the 
book." The variety of the words employed in the Authorized Ver- 
sion (overcome, prevail, conquer, victory) to represent the one 
word in the Greek, has the effect of diminishing the impression 
which this feature in the language would otherwise make on the 
reader. 
8 Rev. xii. 11. 4 Ibid. xix. 11-16. 



216 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

certairrty of its judicial consequences to him and to it, had 
been revealed with increasing distinctness through the for- 
mer writings ; till in two of the last Epistles the " terrible 
voice of most just judgment" had swelled into the full 
tones, to which our ears had been accustomed in Old 
Testament prophecy. I need not recall by particular cita- 
tions the manner in which this line of teaching is carried 
out in the Apocalypse, the various forms of strong develop- 
ment in which the power of evil is represented as appear- 
ing, or the plagues, and punishment, and final overthrow, 
which are its portion from the Lord. The opening procla- 
mation of the coming notifies also its effect on the world : 
"Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of 
him." 1 And these sounds continue. Things do not melt 
quietly into the peace of the kingdom of God. There is a 
crash of ruin, and a winepress of the wrath of Almighty 
God, and a lake that burns with fire and brimstone. And 
this judgment falls, not only on principles and powers of 
evil, but on nations of men ; and not only on nations, but 
on separate persons, even on " every one who is not found 
written in the book of life." He who does not accept the 
reality of the world's rebellion and ruin, and of the wrath 
and judgment which it brings, must certainly reject this 
whole book from the canon ; and, with it, must tear away 
large and living portions of every preceding book of 
Scripture. 

6. The features of apocalyptic teaching, which have now 
been noticed, may serve as instances of the whole character 
of the doctrine, which is combined with its predictions ; 

i Rev. i. 7. 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 217 

and which, as a doctrine of consummation, is an evident 
advance, in that particular direction, on the doctrine of the 
Epistles. But it is when the prophecy carries us beyond 
the great crisis, that this advance is most clearly seen. 
The coming of the Lord is not the last thing which we 
know. After that event has closed the present age, after 
the victory has been won, and the judgment has dealt with 
things that are past, the final results appear, and the true 
life of man begins. The doctrine of the book is ultimately 
and pre-eminently one of restoration. 

" I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there 
was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new 
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband." In taking 
these words for my text I placed myself at the point 
where the whole teaching of Scripture culminates. Here, at 
the last step, we have a definite and satisfactory completion 
of the former doctrine of the future. There is to be a per- 
fect humanity ; not only perfect individually, but perfect in 
society. There is to be a city of God. " The Holy City ! " 
— there is the realization of the true tendencies of man. 
"New Jerusalem ! " — there is' the fulfilment of the ancient 
promises of God. 

Dwell for a moment on the word " city," under the 
remembrance of what it was to those in whose language 
the book is written. The city is a constitution of society 
complete in its own local habitation ; the visible collection 
of buildings being a symbol of the organized life within. 
It is the most perfect realization, and the most convenient 
representation, of society in Us maturity; in which the 
various relations of men are so combined, as to promote 

19 



218 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

the welfare of the several members, and secure the unity 
of a common life to the whole. " It is " (as has been said) 
"the perfecting of the self-provisions of Nature, and the 
condition of the highest well-being of man." 

There is no need to tell how pooiTy this idea has been 
realized in fact, nor are the causes of the failure remote 
from view. In this fallen world all communities have 
grown up under hard external conditions, and with a deep 
internal disease, sustaining all sorts of shocks and wounds, 
and often developing what vigor they possess in forms of 
violence and oppression. History is the record of human 
societ} 7 . There we see 

" The giant forms of empires on their way 
To ruin : one by one 
They tower, and they are gone : " 

leaving materials to be combined again, that they may be 
again dissolved, and forces which renew their eternal 
struggle at the same time to construct and to destroy. 
Ever since Cain went forth and builded the first cit}-, the 
long experiment has continued ; and he who surve}'S the 
results, in the communities which have filled, and now fill, 
the habitable world, will return from his inspection wearied 
and disheartened, and little able to anticipate the perfec- 
tion of man from the progress of society and the education 
of the world. 

And yet human nature is to find the realization of its 
tendencies and the fulfilment of its hopes. The Bible 
opens the prospect of which history had led us to despair. 
It is one long account of the preparation of the city of God. 
That is one distinct point of view from which the Bible 
ought to be regarded, and one from which its contents will 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 219 

appear ill clearer light. We are accustomed in the present 
day to read it too exclusively from the individual point of 
view, as the record for each man of that will of God and 
that way of salvation with which he is personally con- 
cerned. This it is, but it is more than this. It places 
before us the restoration, not only of the personal, but of 
the social life ; the creation, not only of the man of God, 
but of the city of God ; and it presents the society or city, 
not as a mere name for the congregation of individuals, but 
as having a being and life of its own, in which the Lord 
finds his satisfaction and man his perfection. The "Jeru- 
salem which is above" is, in relation to the Lord, "the 
Bride, the Lamb's Wife," 1 and, in relation to man, it is 
" the Mother of us all." 2 In its appearance the revealed 
course of redemption culminates, and the history of man is 
closed : and thus the last chapters of the Bible declare the 
unity of the whole book, by completing the design which 
has been developed in its pages, and disclosing the result 
to which all preceding steps have tended. 3 Take from the 
Bible the final vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, and what 
will have been lost? Not merely a single passage, a 

1 Rev. xxi. 9. 2 Gal. iv. 26. 

3 Haaa ttoXi? <f>v<rei eoTiv, ei7rep kcu al TrpwTai KOtvawtai* reXos yap avrq ineiviav rj S£ 
<pvacs Te'Aos eariv olov yap etcaarov eon tij? yeveaeus TeAecrfletoTjs, ra\>Tf\v <}tafiev ttjj> <j>vaiv 
elvat, eKaarov. . . . koX npOTepov 87) rrj (j>vaei 7roAi? 77 e/cacrros r)fjLu>v Sari, rb yap oAov 

nporepov avayaaiov elvai tov nepovs. " Every state is such by nature, if 
the primary communities are (such as families) ; for that is the 
end of these. But nature is an end, a consummated thing ; for what 
each thing is when its being is completed, that we call its nature. 
. . . And surely by its nature a state is prior to every one of us, 
for the ichole is necessarily prior to the part'* — Aristot. Polit. lib. 
i. ch. 1. Most true principles of the true history of man! 



220 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

sublime description, an important revelation ; but a con- 
clusion by which all that went before is interpreted and 
justified. We shall have an unfinished plan, in which 
human capacities have not found their full realization, or 
divine preparations their adequate result. To the mind 
that looks be} T ond individual life, or that understands what 
is necessary to the perfection of individual life, a Bible 
that did not end by building for us a city of God would 
appear to leave much in man unprovided for, and much in 
itself unaccounted for. But as it is, neither of these de- 
ficiencies exists. The great consummation is there, and 
we are instructed to observe, that, from the first, the 
desires of men and the preparations of God have been alike 
directed towards it. 

At the beginning of the sacred story, the Father of the 
faithful comes forth into view, followed by those who are 
heirs with him of the same promise ; and they separate 
themselves to the life of strangers, because they are "looking 
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker 
is God." In due time solid pledges of the divine purpose 
follow. "We behold a peculiar people, a divinely-framed 
polity, a hol\ r city, a house of God. It is a wonderful 
spectacle — this s}'stem of earthly types, thus consecrated 
and glorified by miraculous interventions and inspired 
panegyrics. Do we look on the fulfilment of patriarchal 
hopes, or on the types of their fulfilment? on the final form 
of human society, or on the figures of the true? The 
answer was given by Prophets and Psalmists, and then by 
the word of the Gospel, finally by the hand of God, which 
swept that whole system from the earth. It was gone 
when the words of the text were written, and when the 






LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 221 

closing scene of the Bible presented the new Jerusalem, 
not as the restoration, but as the antitype of the old. 1 

This vision teaches us, that the drama of the world must 
be finished, and its dispensation closed, that the Lord 
must have come, the dead have been raised, the judgment 
have sat, the heavens and the earth which are now have 
passed away, and the new creation have appeared, before 
the chosen people shall see the city of their habitation. 

Meantime it is the day of preparation. The builder of 
the eternal city first " prepares his work without, and 
makes it fit for himself in the field, and afterwards builds 
his house." 2 There was much to be done, and it takes 
long to do it. The members of the intended society must 
be sorted and collected out of the mass of mankind. They 
must also be tested and trained. The very grounds on 
which the future work is to rest must themselves be laid. 
The perfect society is to be founded on men's relations to 
God, and is to be compacted by their relations to each 
other. The true relations were destroyed by sin, and it 
was necessary that they should be constituted afresh. 

This is done in Jesus Christ. Propitiation and atone- 
ment, reconciliation and redemption, are words which 
express the restoration of the broken relations with God, 
as accomplished by the work of the Mediator. Those who 
receive Christ Jesus the Lord are thereby in a state of 
grace. Sin no longer divides and estranges them from 
God. He has returned to them, and they to him. They 
have fellowship with the Father and with the Son by the 

1 See Alford's Prolegomena for a brief summary of arguments 
for the traditional date. 

2 Prov. xxiv. 27. 

19* 



222 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

Holy Ghost. God dwells in them, and they in him. Thus 
in each separate soul are beforehand established those rela- 
tions with God in Christ, which shall hereafter glorify the 
community of the saints, in the day when " the throne of 
God and of the Lamb shall be in it," and " God himself 
shall be with them and be their God." 

To the reconstitution of men's relations to God must 
also be added that of their relations to each other. To 
what an extent these have suffered from the fall of man a 
glance at the history of the world or at any section of 
society is sufficient to convince us. Not only the viola- 
tions, but the very institutions of law and justice testify 
to the fact ; for the law is not made for a righteous man. 
The inherent vice of human society lies in the depravity of 
human nature. If that were healed, and transmuted into 
universal righteousness and love, the internal happiness 
and perfection would be secured. And they are to be 
secured in that city, where u the people shall be all 
righteous," 1 and where love shall never fail. To the 
formation of those habits of mind the teaching of God is 
now visibly directed, and men are trained, on the grounds 
and motives of the Gospel, to love one another. Love is 
ever represented as " the end of the commandment," the 
highest attainment of man, the completion of his education 
by God. And no wonder it is so represented, since the 
present prepares the future, and that future is to be a state 
of society — "a city which is compact together." 2 The 
Gospel then, which lays in the hearts of those who receive 
it the deepest grounds of fellowship, and educates them to 

1 Isa. ix. 21. 2 Ps. cxxii. 3. 



LECT. YIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 223 

the habit of love, is visibly preparing the conditions of the 
things to come. As if to signalize this connection of the 
present work and the future promise of the Gospel, it is 
committed to the last Apostle, who closes the Holy Scrip- 
ture, both to be our chief teacher in the love of the breth- 
ren, and to open to our eyes the scene in which it shall be 
perfected. 

Thus does the present world give scope for the prepara- 
tion of the city of God. Its fundamental principles are 
being established, its members gathered, trained, and made 
ready. At the same time all moral tendencies are being 
wrought out by conflict and experience ; and the vanity of 
what is vain and the evil of what is evil have space to show 
themselves, before the final fires and the eternal judgment 
remove them forever from the scene. Then, when Babylon 
has fallen, the city of God will appear. 

Its fabric and scenery are described in symbolic lan- 
guage glowing with all precious and glorious things ; nor 
do we desire an interpreter who will tell us what the sym- 
bols severally represent, in the future details of the glorified 
society. Perhaps such an attempt would impair, rather 
than enhance, the effect of the vision, which now kindles 
the imagination of expectant faith by the entire assemblage 
of its glories. I only dwell upon the fact that it is a city 
which stands before us, as the final home of mankind. If 
we think only of our individual portion, we miss the com- 
pleteness of Scripture in its provision for the completeness 
of man. If individual blessedness were the highest thought 
of humanity, it might have been sufficient to have restored 
the lost garden of Eden, and to have left the inhabitants 
of the new earth to dwell safely in its wildernesses and 



224 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

sleep in its woods. 1 Such dreams of human happiness have 
haunted the minds of men who have been wearied with 
the disorders, corruptions, and miseries of society, till 
society in itself has seemed to them a standing hindrance 
to perfection, and almost necessarily an organism of evil. 
Thus the habit of mind which flies from man to nature, and 
desires unconstrained freedom, and would simplify to the 
utmost all social relations, has ever looked to depict a 
heaven of fields and bowers, and to ask for the life of the 
first Paradise again. It is worthy of remark that the 
religions of the world have, for the most part, confessed in 
this way their despair of human societ} T , and unconsciously 
acknowledged that in their scheme of things the true 
foundations of it were wanting. 

Not so does the revelation of God inform the expecta- 
tions of those who receive it. Other systems evade the 
demands of the highest tendencies of man : this provides 
that they shall be realized. It decrees not only the indi- 
vidual happiness, but the corporate perfection of man ; and 
closes the book of its prophecy by assuring the children of 
the living God that "he hath prepared for them a city." 

The survey which has been made in these Lectures has 
now earned us from the beginning to the end of the New 
Testament, from the cradle of Bethlehem to the city of 
God. We have seen that this collection of various and 
occasional writings presents to us a gradually progressive 
scheme, fully wrought out in its several stages, and ad- 
vancing in a natural order of succession. 

First a person is manifested and facts are set forth, in 

J Ezek. xxxiv. 25. 



LECT. VIII. THE APOCALYPSE. 225 

the simplest external aspect, under the clearest light, and 
with the concurrence of a fourfold witness. This witness 
also is itself progressive, and in the last Gospel the glory 
of the person has grown more bright, and the meaning of 
the facts more clear. 

Then, in the Book of Acts, Christ is preached as per- 
fected, and as the refuge and life of the world. The results 
of his appearing are summed up and settled ; and men are 
called to believe and be saved. -Those who do so find 
themselves in new relations to each other ; they become 
one body, and grow into the form and life of a Catholic 
Church. 

The state which has thus been entered needs to be ex- 
pounded, and the life which has been begun needs to be 
educated. The Apostolic letters perform the work. The 
questions which universally follow the first submissions of 
the mind receive their answers, and so the faith which was 
general grows definite. The rising exigencies of the new 
life are met, both for the man and for the Church : and we 
learn what is the happy consciousness, and what the holy 
conversation, which belong to those who are " in Christ 
Jesus." 

Lastly, as members of the body of Christ, we find our- 
selves partakers in a corporate life and a history larger 
than our own. We feel that we are taken up into a scheme 
of things, which is in conflict with the present, and which 
cannot realize itself here. Therefore our final teaching is 
by prophecy, which shows us, not how we are personally 
saved and victorious, but how the battle goes upon the 
whole ; and which issues in the appearance of a holy city, 
in which redemption reaches its end, and the Redeemer 
finds his joy ; in which human tendencies are realized, and 



226 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE. LECT. VIII. 

divine promises fulfilled ; in which the ideal has become 
the actual, and man is perfected in the presence and glory 
of God. 

If this doctrine is not of the worl'd, every step that it 
takes in advance must make that fact more plain. The 
world feels that it is so. The manifestation of Christ it 
will admire and interpret for itself. The preaching of 
Christ it can hear and accept in its generality. The life 
in Christ through the Spirit it cannot receive. The king- 
dom of Christ in its antagonism to itself it cannot suffer. 
Yes, the world is right. In following the advancing line 
of doctrine in the Scriptures, we diverge further and fur- 
ther from its paths and habits of thought. But is that a 
subject of regret? What has been the progress of doctrine 
achieved b} r the spirit which is of the world ? Into what 
can it ever lead our souls ? Into vague desires to which 
nothing corresponds, into great ideas which remain ideas 
still, into uncertainty and perplexity, into vanity and vexa- 
tion of spirit. Only the written word of God, confidingly 
followed in the progressive steps of its advance, can lead 
the weakest or the wisest into the deep blessedness of the 
life that is in Christ, and into the final glory of the city of 
God. 

Perhaps in some minds this needful confidence may be 
strengthened by a review of the books of the New Testa- 
ment in the light in which they have now been placed. 
When it is felt that these narratives, letters, and visions do 
in fact fulfil the several functions, and sustain the mutual 
relations, which would belong to the parts of one design, 
coalescing into a doctrinal scheme, which is orderly, pro- 
gressive, and complete, then is the mind of the reader in 
conscious contact with the mind of God ; then the super- 



Lect.VIII. the apocalypse. 227 

ficial diversity of the parts is lost in the essential unity of 
the whole : the many writings have become one Book ; the 
many writers have become one Author. From the position 
of students, who address themselves with critical interest 
to the works of Matthew, of Paul, or of John, we have risen 
to the higher level of believers, who open with holy joy 
"the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ," and, while we receive from his own hand the book 
of life eternal, we hear him saying still, " I have given 
unto them the words which thou gavest me." 



NOTES. 



NOTES. 



PEEFACE. 

Note I., p. 13. 

For the customary order of the books of the New Testament in 
ancient times we may refer to Manuscripts, Catalogues, and Old 
Versions. 

The testimony of Manuscripts will be at once exhibited and cer- 
tified by the following extract from Mr. Scrivener's Introduction to 
the Criticism of the New Testament. 

" It is right to bear in mind that comparatively few copies of the 
whole [Greek] New Testament remain; the usual practice being to 
write the four Gospels in one volume, the Acts and Epistles in 
another: manuscripts of the Apocalypse, which was little used for 
public worship, being much rarer than those of the other books. 
Occasionally the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles form a single volume ; 
sometimes the Apocalypse is added to other books. . . . The 
Codex Sinaiticus of Tischendorf is the more precious, that it hap- 
pily exhibits the whole New Testament complete : so would the 
Codices Alexandrinus and Ephraemi, but they are sadly mutilated. 
No other uncial copies have this advantage, and very few cursives. 
In England, only four such are known. . . . Besides these 
Scholtz enumerates only nineteen foreign copies of the whole New 
Testament ; but twenty-seven in all out of the whole mass of 
extant documents. 

"Whether copies contain the whole or a part of the sacred vol- 
ume, the general order of the books is the following : Gospels, Acts, 
Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse. A solitary manu- 
script of the fifteenth century (Venet. 10, Evan. 209) places the 
Gospels between the Pauline Epistles and the Apocalypse : in the 

231 



232 NOTES. PltEFACE. 

Codices Sinaiticus, Leicestrensis, Fabri (Evan. 90), and Montforti- 
anus, as in the Bodleian Canonici 34, the Pauline Epistles precede 
the Acts; the Codex Basiliensis (No. 4 of the Epistles), and Lam- 
beth 1182, 1183, have the Pauline Epistles .immediately after the 
Acts and before the Catholic Epistles, as in our present Bibles ; 
Scholz's Evan. 368 stands thus, St. John's Gospel, Apocalypse, then 
all the Epistles ; inHavniens. I. No. 234 of the Gospels (A. D. 1278), 
the order appears to be, Acts, Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles, 
Gospels ; in Basil. B. vi. 27 or Cod. 1, the Gospels now follow the 
Acts and the Epistles ; while in Evan. 51 the binder has set the 
Gospels last; these however are mere accidental exceptions to the 
prevailing rule. The four Gospels are almost invariably found in 
their familiar order, although in the Codex Bezaj they stand, Mat- 
thew, John, Luke, Mark ; in the Codex Monacensis (X), John, Luke, 
Matthew, Mark; in the Curetonian Syriac version, Matthew, Mark, 
John, Luke. In the Pauline Epistles, that to the Hebrews precedes 
the four Pastoral Epistles, and immediately follows the second to 
the Thessalonians in the four great Codices, Sinaiticus, Alexan- 
drinus, Vaticauus, and Ephraem : in the copy from which the Cod. 
Vatican, was taken, the Hebrews followed the Gtilatians. The 
Codex Claromontauus, the document next in importance to these 
four, sets the Colossians appropriately enough next to its kindred 
and contemporaneous Epistle to the Ephesians, but postpones that 
to the Hebrews to Philemon, as in our present Bibles ; an arrange- 
ment which at first, no doubt, originated in the early scruples pre- 
vailing in the Western Church with respect to the authorship and 
canonical authority of that divine Epistle." l 

From extant Jlanuscri/As I turn to the earliest Catalogues of the 
sacred books which occur in the writings of Christian antiquity, 
and these, perhaps, are more real indications of habit in the Church 
than particular manuscripts can be. It will only be necessary to 
advert to a few of the most important of these Catalogues, and in 
so doing I refer the reader to the Rev. B. F. Westcott's History of 
the Canon of the Xew Testament, or his shorter and more popular 
volume, Hie Bible in the Church, books which deal with a subject 

l Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, pp.60-62. 



Preface. notes. 233 

lying close to the foundations of our faith, in a spirit not less rev- 
erential than critical, and which place within the reach of ordinary- 
readers an exact, lucid, and succinct account of a history which 
was before the property of the learned. 

The Muratorian Fragment, " of which the date may "be fixed 
with tolerable certainty, A. D. 160-170," and which " may be re- 
garded on the whole as a summary of the opinion of the Western 
Church on the canon shortly after the middle of the second cen- 
tury, commences with the last words of a sentence which evidently 
referred to the Gospel of St. Mark : " the Gospel of St. Luke is then 
expressly mentioned as " the third," and the Gospel of St. John " as 
the fourth." The Book of Acts is mentioned next, and then thirteen 
Epistles of St. Paul, enumerated in the following order : Corin- 
thians I., II., Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, Thessa- 
lonians I., II., Romans, Epistles (it is observed) written (like those 
in the Apocalypse) to seven churches ; then Philemon, Titus, Timo- 
thy I., II. After observations on these books, the Fragment di- 
verges to spurious or disputed books, and the assertion that the 
Epistle of Jude and two Epistles of John are reckoned among the 
Catholic (Epistles) is the only notice of the remaining books which 
its corrupt and apparently mutilated state has left. 

The Catalogue given by Eusbeius (H. E. iii. 25), c. A. D. 340, 
claims a special importance on account of his having been em- 
ployed by Constantine to prepare the first edition of the Bible 
which had the seal of a central or sovereign authority. The order 
is the same as our own, except in as far as it appears disarranged 
by the principle on which the Catalogue is formed, namely, that of 
distinguishing the acknowledged from the controverted books. 

"First, then, we place the holy quaternion of the Gospels, which 
are followed by the account of the Acts of the Apostles. After 
this we must reckon the Epistles of St. Paul ; and next to them we 
must maintain as genuine the Epistle circulated as the former of 
John, and in like manner that of Peter. In addition to these 
books, if possibly such a view seem correct, we must place the 
Revelation of John, the judgments on which we shall set forth in 
due course, and these are regarded as generally received. Among 
the controverted books, which are nevertheless well known and 

20* 



234 notes. Preface. 

recognized by most, we class the Epistle circulated under the 
name of James, and that of Jude, as well as the Second of Peter, 
and the so-called Second and Third of John, whether they really 
belong to that Evangelist or possibly to another of the same 
name." 1 

The Catalogue of Athanasius (Ep. Alex. 326) A. D. 373, given in 
a style of authoritative decision, is as follows : " The Books of the 
New Testament are these, — Four Gospels, according to Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, John. Then after these, the Acts of the Apostles, and 
the so-called Catholic Epistles of Apostles, seven in number ; thus, 
of James, one; of Peter, two; of John, three; and after these, of 
Jade, one. In addition to these there are fourteen Epistles of the 
Apostle Paul, in their order written thus : Romans, Corinthians I., 
II., Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians 
I., II., and that to the Hebrews ; and in succession, Timothy I., II., 
Titus, Philemon; ami again the Apocalypse of John." 9 

The testimonies of Ensebioa and Athanasius are in effect those 
of the Greek and Alexandrine Churches. One other list promul- 
gated a lew years later (A. U. 897) by the voice of a whole province, 
is on that account worthy to be specified, since it is the first (cer- 
tain) synodieal decision on the canon of Scripture. It is found in 
the proceedings of the third Council of Carthage, at which Augus- 
tine was present. The order Ls as follows: "Four books of the 
Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of 
the Apostle Paul, one Epistle of the same to the Hebrews, two 
Epistles of the Apostle Peter, three of John, one of James, one of 
Jude, one book of the Apocalypse of John ; " 3 precisely corre- 
sponding to our own order, except in the place given to the Epis- 
tle of James. Lastly, as the best witness of Italian custom we 
may take the Catalogue of Ruffinus (c. A.D. 410), in which the order 
i*. identical with that of the decree of Carthage, and therefore with 
our own, save that the Catholic Epistles stand as follows : " Two 
of the Apostle Peter; one of James, the Lord's brother and Apos- 
tle; one of Jude; three of John." 

But perhaps the most important evidence to the custom of the 

1 History of Canon, 481-2. 2 Ibid. 574. 3 Ibid. 509. 



Preface. NOTES. 235 

Church is not that of manuscripts or catalogues, but rather that of 
the two venerable versions of Syria and North Africa, which are 
almost coeval with the first general recognition of a collected New 
Testament. The Peshito was popularly and practically the Bible 
of the Syrian Church. The Old Latin was, as it were, the parent 
of the Vulgate, which became the common Bible of the West. The 
order of the Peshito is the same as that of the best Greek manu- 
scripts, the four Gospels, the Acts, the Catholic Epistles (i. e. those 
which it admitted), the Epistles of St. Paul (the Apocalypse being 
absent) . The order of the Vulgate is that which our modern Bibles 
exhibit ; the Old Latin order of the Gospels, Matthew, John, Mark, 
and Luke (which was ruled no doubt by the apostolic rank of the 
authors), being changed by Jerome in accordance with the Greek 
order, which was derived not merely from chronological considera- 
tions, but from a finer doctrinal instinct. 

This glance at the various testimonies which survive, of the an- 
cient customs of the Church, is sufficient to show that the order 
with which we are familiar has substantially prevailed from the 
first recognition of the separate books as forming one collection or 
instrument. The great divisions, the Gospels, the Acts, the Epis- 
tles, and the Apocalypse, occur habitually in their natural order, 
and though there are many variations (most frequently in regard 
to the position of the Acts, yet they are exceptions to the general 
rule. The books which compose these several divisions likewise 
assume habitually the same arrangement as at present. It is so 
with the four Gospels, and with the Pauline Epistles, the order of 
which is seldom varied except in respect of the place given to the 
Hebrews. The only important variation, which obtains extensively, 
is in the relative positions of the Pauline and Catholic Epistles. 
The Manuscripts for the most part place the Catholic Epistles next 
to the Acts, and before the Pauline Epistles. In the Catalogues 
the opposite order is more frequent, and becomes increasingly so 
the farther we advance. Of five-and-twenty Catalogues which are 
collected in the Appendix to Mr. Westcott's Histoid/ of the Canon, 
ranging from c. A. D. 170 to A. D. 636, I find that seven give the 
first place to the Catholic, and eighteen to the Pauline Epistles. 

This last point is one of minor importance, yet as connected with 



236 NOTES. Preface. 

the conformation of the New Testament it has its interest ; and as 
some little stress is laid upon it in one of these Lectures (the 
Vlth), it may be well to point out the following reasons for the 
greater fitness of the arrangement which has upon the whole pre- 
vailed. 

1. There is the closest possible relation between the Book of 
Acts and St. Paul's Epistles, the latter part of the Book forming as 
it were the historical introduction to his writings, so that we pass 
from one to the other by a natural — it almost might seem a neces- 
sary — transition. 

2. The unity and mass of St. Paul's writings properly claim for 
them precedence over the fewer, shorter, and less connected 
writings. 

3. The course of doctrinal instruction pleads for the same ar- 
rangement, in order that the more thorough and systematic treat- 
ment of fundamental subjects may precede that which is more 
supplementary. 

4. In the heart of the Catholic Epistles, there is a note which 
seems to appoint their position, namely, in the reference (2 Pet. iii. 
15, 1G) to St. Paul's writings as previously known, and in the ex- 
press intimation of an intention to confirm their doctrine. 

These considerations obviously outweigh the one reason for the 
opposite order, which is found in the relative historical positions 
of the authors, and which, taken by itself, would certainly postpone 
the productions of the later Apostle, born out of due time, to those 
which bear the names of chief members of the original college. 



Lect.I. notes. 237 

LECTURE I. 

Note II., p. 39. 

In his recently published Apologia, Dr. Newman has shown into 
what form he has found it necessary to recast his doctrine of 
Development, though the subject is touched in a shy and uneasy 
manner. 

" It (i. e. the Infallible Power which imposes doctrine) must ever 
profess to be guided by Scripture and tradition. It must refer 
to the particular Apostolic truth which it is enforcing or (what is 
called) defining. Nothing, then, can be presented to me in time to 
come as part of the faith, but what I ought already to have re- 
ceived, and have not actually received, (if not) merely because it 
had not been told me. ... It must be what I may even have 
guessed or wished to be included in the Apostolic revelation. . . 
Perhaps I and others actually have always believed it, and the only 
question which is now decided in my behalf is that I am hence- 
forth to believe that I am only holding what the Apostles held 
before me." x 

These statements are then expressly applied to "the doctrine 
which Protestants consider our greatest difficulty, that of the Im- 
maculate Conception; " and, after assuring us that the imposition 
of this doctrine is no burden to himself or others, and that he " sin- 
cerely thinks that St. Bernard and St. Thomas, who scrupled at it 
in their day, had they lived into this would have rejoiced to accept 
it for its own sake," he adds the remark that " the number of those 
(so-called) new doctrines will not oppress us, if it takes eight 
centuries to promulgate even one of them. Such is about the 
length of time through which the preparation has been carried on 
for the definition of the Immaculate Conception." 2 

These expressions occur incidentally while the author is show- 
in that "the (so-called) new doctrines " arc " no burden" to priests 
under the Roman obedience, which of course is true, if the doc- 

1 Part vii. p. 393. 2 p. 395. 



238 notes. Leot. I. 

trines be such as they "have guessed and wished to be included in 
the Apostolic revelation." But the expressions themselves are re- 
markable as showing how awkwardly Dr. Newman's own doctrine 
of Development has assumed the garb and style of his Church's 
doctrine of tradition; his true account of a development which 
historically took place, veiling itself, as by command, under its 
fiction of a tradition which did not really exist. 

A doctrine is for the first time promulgated by the Infallible Au- 
thority, and imposed as an article of the faith. " The preparation 
for it has been carried on for eight hundred years." Eight hundred 
years ago is the most distant point at which any "preparation" for 
it can be discerned, that "preparation" being found in the first 
suggestion of the opinion, and in the rejection of it by the leading 
authorities of the time as new and false ; but as time goes on it gains 
influence and acceptance. It is ackdowledged, then, that in the 
thousand years preceding it was not < w n in preparation, that there is 
no trace of it whatever until its mediaeval dawn. According to 
the doctrine of Development, the Infallible Authority would decree 
its truth as having been gradually wrought out during those eight 
hundred years, and at last adequately recognized by the instinct 
of the Church. According to the doctrine of Tradition, it must 
decree the truth of the opinion on the ground of its having been a 
part of the original revelation handed down from the beginning. 
In the one case it would affirm that the doctrine would have been 
held by the Apostles if they had known of it. In the other case it 
must affirm that the doctrine was made known to the Apostles and 
that they did hold it. To this latter theory Dr. Newman has now 
seen it necessary to conform his language. " The only question now 
decided is that he is holding what the Apostles held before him." The 
Infallible Authority is thus recognized, not as deciding on the truth 
of an opinion, but as certifying a fact, i. e. that the Apostles held 
such and such an opinion as part of the revelation given to them. 
If no evidence of this fact survives, if no tradition has handed it 
down, if the doctrine is one which only began to he prepared eight 
hundred years ago, it is evident that the Infallible Authority can 
only have known the fact which it certifies by a direct revelation. 

To one who considers the exigencies of the Eomish position so 



Lect. I. NOTES. 239 

glaringly exemplified in connection with the doctrine here alluded 
to, it must appear that this issue of an attempt to provide for 
those exigencies, by a theory in some measure accordant with 
facts, is the strongest testimony to the ineradicable sense of Chris- 
tendom, that the divine communication of truth was limited to the 
Apostolic age. 

The method of the perpetuation and transmission of the truths 
then communicated is of course an entirely separate question. But 
whether that question be determined as it is by Rome, or as it is 
by us, the kind of development of doctrine which legitimately be- 
longs to the Church must be, on either hypothesis, theoretically 
the same. It must consist in a fuller and more systematic appre- 
hension of the truths which were communicated at first, not in the 
addition of truths communicated afterwards. Practically, the 
Church of Rome has acted (as Dr. Newman so distinctly felt) on 
the latter, and not on the former, of these principles : first adding 
new doctrines on the most flimsy pretences of a tradition, and 
then superadding one for which not the slenderest thread of a 
tradition could be shown. 



240 



NOTES . 



LECT . II. 



LECTURE II. 

Note III., p. 60. 

No more interesting and suggestive summary of the comparative 
character and scope of the several Gospels could be given, than 
that which is produced by simply placing their respective conclu- 
sions side by side. 



Matt, xxviii. 
18-20. 

Jesus came and 
spake unto them, 
saying, All power 
Is given unto me 
in heaven and in 
earth. 

Go ye therefore, 
and teach all na- 
tions, baptizing 
them in the name 
of the Father, and 
of tin- Son, and of 
the Holy (ihost: 

Teaching them 
to observe all 
things whatsoever 
I have commanded 
you : and, lo, I am 
with you ulway, 
even unto the end 
of the world. 
Amen. 



31 ark xvi. 

15-20. 

And he said un- 
to them, Go ye 
into all the world, 
ami preach the 

gospel to every 
creature. 

He that bellev- 
eth and is baptized 
shall he Bared; 
but he that be- 
licvetli not shall 
he damned. 

And these Bigna 
shall follow them 
that believe; in 

my name shall 
they cast out dev- 
ils ; they shall 
-peak with new 
tongi 

They shall take 
up serpents; and 
if they drink any 
deadly thing, it 
shall " not hurt 
them ; they shall 
lav hands on the 
sick, and they shall 
recover. 

So then after the 
Lord had spoken 
unto them, he was 
received up into 
heaven, and sat on 
the right hand of 
God. 

And they went 
forth, and preach- 
ed everywhere, the 
Lord working with 
them, and confirm- 
ing the word with 
signs following. 
Amen. 



Luke xxiv. 

50-5:J. 

And he led them 
out as far as to 
Bethany, and he 
lifted up his hands, 
and blessed them. 

And it came to 
pass, while he 
blessed them, lie 
was parted from 
them, and carried 
up into heaven. 

And they wor- 
shipped him, ami 
returned to .Jeru- 
salem with great 
joy : 

And were con- 
tinually in the 
temple, praising 
and blessing God. 
Amen. 



John xx. 

28-31. 

And Thomas an- 
swered and said 
unto him, .My Lord 
and my God. 

.JeMis saith unto 
him, Thomas, be- 
cause thou hast 
Been me, thou hast 
believed : blessed 
are they that have 
not seen, and yet 
have believed. 

And many other 
signs truly did 
Jesus in the pres- 
ence of his disci- 
ples, which are not 
written in this 
book : 

iiut these are 
written, that ye 

might believe that 
.b BUS i- the < hri.-t, 
the Son of God ; 
and that believing 
ye might have life 
through his name. 



Lect. II. NOTES. 241 

Here we see, 1. In St. Matthew, the Royal Lawgiver, or King and 
Teacher of men, endued with all authority, 1 founding a kingdom 
for all nations, with its ordinance of admission (baptism) and its 
permanent laws ("Whatsoever I have commanded you"): and 
still the kingdom is (as it were) a school, in which his commis- 
sioners are charged to continue the work of teaching which he had 
begun. 2 

2. In St. Mark the Mighty Worker, who leaves the energy of his 
action in his Church. Not here is represented the slower process 
of forming and training communities, but the bold and world-wide 
proclamation, with the sure execution of its sanction. 3 Then the 
signs of living power are to follow those that believe, beginning 
with the casting out of devils in his name. Finally, the scene is 
changed in a moment, and the command and promise are seen in 
their fulfilment — the Lord in heaven, the disciples on earth — they 
going forth and preaching everywhere, and the Lord still working 
with them and confirming the word by the signs of power. 

3. In St. Luke, the Friend of Man, sending to all nations the 
message of repentance and remission of sins, and ensuring to his 
messengers the promise of his Father; while the reality of kind 
companionship is preserved to the end, in the mention of locali- 
ties, movements, and gestures (" He led them out as far as to 
Bethany," " He lifted up His hands and blessed them," " He was 
parted from them"), the parting itself being one of love (while 
He blessed them), and one which leaves behind it a state of wor- 
ship and joy. 

4. In St. John, the Son of God, receiving from the lately doubt- 
ing disciple the highest acknowledgment which had yet come from 
human lips, " My Lord and my God," 4 and then, as it were, lifting 
up his eyes beyond the little company who had seen him, and pro- 
nouncing for all ages and nations a blessing on those who, not 
having seen, should yet have believed. Yet farther, the Evangelist 
speaks from himself, thus characteristically closing the only gospel 
in which the thoughts of the writer have been mingled with his 

1 egovcrCa. 2 jota0rjTeu<raTe — SioacncovTes. 

3 Compare the /xaflrjTevaaTe ndvTa Tot eflvrj with the K7jpv'£aTe iraoj) tij KTicei. 

4 6 Kvpid? iaov nal o ©eos jxov. 

21 



242 notes. Lect. II. 

narrative. He tells us that he has given us incidents intentionally 
selected for a certain definite purpose, namely, to present the 
great object of faith in his highest character as the Son of God, 
and so to secure the result of faith in its deepest essence, "life 
through his name." 

Note IV., p. GG. 

This effect of the opening of St. Matthew's Gospel, and so of the 
whole Gospel record, is well described by Lange : 

11 The genealogy, &c, with which the Gospel according to Mat- 
thew opens, is of the greatest importance. The first Gospel con- 
nects the New Testament with the Old, not by giving an index of 
the writings of the Old Testament, but by delineating the Old Tes- 
tament genealogy of Jesus. This serves not merely as evidence 
of the indissoluble connection between the Old and the New Tes- 
tament, which continued in the Becret recesses of Jewish life even 
during the age of the Apocrypha, but expresses the important 
truth that God revealed himself and carried on his covenant pur- 
poses, not only by the spoken and written word, but also and chiefly 
in and by the seed of Abraham, until he came in whom both imper- 
sonation and revelation had reached their climax. 

"In the Gospel by Matthew the life of Jesus is presented as 
forming part of the history and life of the Jewish nation; and 
hence as the historical fulfilment of the blessing promised to Abra- 
ham and to his seed. Jesus is here set before us as the new-born 
King of the Jews, as the promised Messiah, and the aim and goal of 
every progressive stage of the theocracy. lie is the great Anti- 
type of Old Testament history, in whom everything has been ful- 
filled — the types in the law, in worship, in historical events, and 
in gracious interpositions — in short, the fulfilment of the theoc- 
racy. In and with him the old covenant passes into the new, the 
theocracy into the kingdom of heaven, the demands of the law into 
the beatitudes, Sinai into the Mount of Beatitudes, the prophetic 
into the teaching office, the priesthood into redemption by suffer- 
ing, and the kingship into the triumph of almighty grace, restoring, 
helping, and delivering a fallen world." ' 

l Lauge, Commentary on St. Matthew, pp. 49, 50. 



Lect. II. NOTES. 243 

Again, in his other work, the same thoughts occur : — 
" He (St. Matthew) exhibits the Gospel in its historical relation 
as the completion, the spiritual fruit of the Christological growth 
in the Old Testament. It was his task to prove to his own nation 
that Jesus was the Messiah, the Sou of David, the Son of Abra- 
ham. (Chap. i. 1.) But just because Christ was, in his eyes, the 
true and spiritual King of the Jews, and His kingdom the true 
theocratic kingdom of God, did Matthew from the very first give 
prominence to the great contrast between the spiritual Israel and 
the worldly and hardened Israel. Thence it was that from the 
beginning new conflicts were ever arising, thence that we con- 
tinually meet with fresh sufferings of the holy Heir of the ancient 
theocracy till His death upon the cross, new triumphs till the 
manifestation of His glory. The series of the Messiah's sufferings 
runs through the whole of this gospel as its prevailing thought." J 



Note V., p. 71. 

The essential identity of the synoptist -view of the person of 
Christ with that given by St. John is ably asserted by Dorner. It 
may be well to cite a part of his argument : — 

" Taking the notices of the Synoptists together, it thus appears 
that for all eternity, also for the eternal life 2 in heaven, the Person 
of Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, forms the centre 
point of the Christian religion, in the trials and in the triumphs of 
individuals and of the Church. He is the perfect Lawgiver. He 
not merely reveals, but he realizes as well, the holy and just as 
the gracious will of God ; hence is He also the Judge of the world. 
He has and exercises power over the whole world, even as he does 
over the spiritual ; He communicates here the forgiveness of sins 
and the Holy Ghost, there eternal felicity ; and the summit of the 
latter is ever formed by perfect fellowship with His Person. . . . 

" It may be boldly affirmed that the entire representation of 
Christ given by the Synoptists may be placed by the side of the 
Johannine as perfectly identical, inasmuch as faith, moulded by 

l Life of Christ, vol. i. 249. 2 $oq alwvios. 



244 NOTES. Lect. III. 

means of the synoptic tradition, must Lave essentially the same 
features in its conception of Christ as the Christ of John has. 

" The passages in John which speak the most loftily of Christ 
are those to which the Synoptists supply exactly the closest paral- 
lels, whilst some of the strongest traits in the latter find no 
parallel in John ; comp. Matt. ix. 2-6 with John v. 41 (viii. 11), 
Matt, xxviii. 18-20 with John iii. 35. But as these latter synoptic 
traits are assuredly capable of being without difficulty incorporated 
with John's representation of Christ, so, on the other hand, may 
what John, with Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews, advances, 
that goes beyond the synoptists — that, namely, which has relation 
to the element of pre-existence — be brought into relation to them. 
The Christ of the Synoptists stands already so high above the 
Ebionitic Christ; He is especially through His eschatological 
aspect so linked with the world-idea, that to the synoptic faith 
there needs to be added not so much a new object as simply a 
stronger interest of gnosis; and so also it is that this faith can 
find satisfaction in no narrower utterance concerning Christ than 
in such a one as the dogma of 1 1 i — > pie-existence will enunciate. 

"In point of fact there are not wanting in the Synoptists them- 
selves the beginning of such: comp. Luke vii. 37, Matt. xi. 19, 
where Christ calls himself the Wisdom, with Frov. viii., Matt. xi. 
27; especially, however, Luke xi. 49 with Matt, xxiii. 34 ; Matt, 
xiii. 17, Luke x. 23-24, with John viii. 5G ff." l 



LECTURE III. 

Note VI., p. 95. 

This hindrance is strongly put in some words of Draseke quoted 
by Stier : — 

'•The old Messiah in the flesh is with them; therefore the new 
Comforter, the Spirit, is far from them. Tv"hat hindered their 
being comforted? Jesus himself, who, comforting, stood before 

1 Dorner, On the Person of Christ, Introduction, pp. CO, 01. 



Lect. IV. NOTES. 245 

them, was the hindrance ! As long as he, this Messiah, bearing 
all the prophetic marks upon him, stood before them in person, 
this his person continued to be a foundation and prop to that sys- 
tem of vanities which bewitched their heads and hearts. The 
Form must pass away from their eyes before the Spirit could enter 
their souls. It was good for them that Jesus should go away. 
Before he, the Christ after the flesh, went away, the Christ after 
the Spirit could not come. When the former vanished, the latter 
appeared." 1 



LECTURE IV. 

Note VII., p. 103. 

Baumgarten's Apostolic History starts at once from the right 
point of view ; and the effect of this is felt through the whole 
work. I subjoin a part of his criticism on the cardinal expression, 
which indicates the relation between the two histories treated by 
St. Luke, in support of that view of it which is briefly given in the 
text of the lecture : — 

" From the words, ' which Jesus began both to do and to teach,' 1 
we perceive that, through the Gospel, St. Luke intends Jesus to 
be regarded as the acting subject of this history. Consequently, 
whatever else the Gospel narrates, whether the actions of other 
persons or the sufferings of the Saviour himself, his labors, either 
in doing or in teaching, are to be considered as the central point 
from which the whole is determined. But now it is of especial 
significance that in this passage there occurs a word which, corre- 
sponding to the term wpurov, refers us with equal precision, as well 
to what follows, as to what precedes. It is the word w^aro. With 
good reason has Meyer maintained that this word has a peculiar 
emphasis, and has therefore rightly rejected all such expositions 
of it as would explain away its force. But the explanation which 
he himself proposes is equally fatal to the emphatic character 

1 Words of the Lord Jesus, vol. vi. p. 337. 

2 Siv f)p£oiTO 6 'Itjctous noielv re /cai SiSatrKeiv. 
21* 



2<i6 NOTES. Lect. IV. 

which he claims for it. He sees in it, for instance, an antithesis of 
this kind, ' Jesus began — the Apostles carried on.' But the pe- 
culiar force, which Meyer has just claimed for ijpfaro (began), de- 
pends, so far as I can see, on its position, standing as it does before 
the name, which, in itself, comprises the whole subject-matter of 
the Gospel. . . . 

" The impressive force of the word ^fa™ will, therefore, be duly 
appreciated as soon as, with Olshausen (in loc.) and Schnecken- 
burger, we regard it as characterizing and referring to the whole 
of Jesus' labors during his existence on earth — in other words, as 
describing the whole course of his labors up to the time of his 
ascension as initiatory and preparatory. 

" If, therefore, at the commencement of a second book, all that 
had been narrated in the first fa characterized as the work of the 
initiatory Labors of Jesns, is not this a plain intimation that in the 
second book we are to look for an account of the further continu- 
ance of those labors ? " l 

Note VIII., p. 112. 

The view, which is given in the text, of St. Paul's testimony, 
concerning the sources from which he had derived his gospei, and 
particularly of his assertion, 1 Cor. xi. 23, was not reached with- 
out some hesitation. It had once seemed to me (as probably it 
does to most readers) that the interpretation of the words iyi* 
nape\aipoi> i™ toO Kvptoi-, was decided by the more definite language of 
Gal. i. 12; and also that the express mention both of the h<» and 
the Kvpios was more natural, on the supposition that the Apostle 
meant to intimate an immediate personal communication from the 
Lord to himself. The first of these reasons is removed, if the 
expressions in the Corinthians on the one hand, and those in the 
Galatiaus and Ephesians on the other, contemplate the Gospel (as 
they obviously do) from the two different sides of history and 
doctrine. The second reason was merely a confirmation of an in- 
terpretation accepted upon other grounds, and has no great force 

1 Baumgarten's Apostolic History (Clarke's Tr.), sect. J, pp. 10, 11. 



Lect. IV. notes. 247 

by itself. It is an argument of the same kind, but perhaps of 
scarcely as much weight, as that which is adduced on the other 
side from the use of dn6 instead of napd. Dean Alford's decision 
(the opposite of that which is adopted in the lecture) seems to me 
too hastily given in regard to a point of so much interest ; and he 
treats the question of the preposition too slightingly : — 

"For I (no emphasis on eyw as Meyer, al., see ch. vii. 28 com- 
pared with 32; Gal. vi. 17; Phil. iv. 11) received from the Lord 
{by special revelation, see Gal. i. 12). Meyer attempts to deny that 
this revelation was made to Paul himself, on the strength of dnd 
meaning indirect, napd direct reception from any one : but this dis- 
tinction iS fallacious : e. g. 1 John i. 5, avnj ecrrlvri enayyeXCa -fjv a.K7)K6a.iiev 

an aiTov. He supposes that it was made to Ananias or some other, 
and communicated to Paul. But the sole reason for this somewhat 
culmsy hypothesis is the supposed force of the preposition, which 
has no existence. If the Apostle had referred only to the Evan- 
gelical tradition or writings (?) he would not have used the first 
person singular, but napeKdfioixev." x 

" The supposed force of the preposition, which has no exist- 
ence," is an over-confident expression. Against this decision must 
be weighed the opinion given by others, e. g. by Winer: "After 
verbs of receiving, &c, and has merely the general meaning of 
whence : Matt. xvii. 25, dnb rlvwv \a>xfSdvovo~i rix-q ; it is kings who are 
the \aixpdvovTes ; napd would have indicated the immediate gathering 
of the taxes, and would have been employed in this passage had 
the tax-gatherers been spoken of as the kaupdvovTes. In the expres- 
sion Aajajsdvovres napd nvo? the ti S denotes the person actually deliver- 
ing or tendering : in Aa/j.jsdvovTes dn6 twos it denotes merely the pro- 
prietor. . . . Paul, in 1 Cor. Xi. 23, Writes napiXafiov dnb rod Kvpiov, 

1 I received of the Lord,' not, the Lord himself has directly, per- 
sonally, in an dn Kd\v^, communicated it to me." 2 
Winer's judgment is adopted by Bishop Ellicott. On Gal. 12, 

OvSe yap eyot napd dv9pu>nov nape\afiov , he SSiYS, li napd avOpwnov 'from man,' 

not synonymous with dnb dvepu-ov, the distinction between the prep- 
ositions after verbs of receiving, &c. (napd more immediate, dnb more 

l Alford in loc. 2 Grammar ofN. T. Diction, p. 388. 



248 NOTES. Lect. IV. 

remote source), being apparently regularly maintained in St. Paul's 
Epistles. Compare 1 .Cor. xi. 23, nape\apov awb too Kvpiov, on which 
Winer (De Verb. Comp. Fasc. ii., p. 7) rightly observes, 'nonwapa 
toO Kuptov, propterea quocl non ipse Christus prsesentem docuit.' " 
The example given by Alford on the other side appears of little 

Value, as the enayyeXia fjv a/c7j»c6a/u.ev an avrov IS UOt a Sayillg cited by St. 

John as uttered to him personally by the mouth of Christ, but a 
general summary of the message with which the teachers of the 
Church were entrusted by their Lord. On the whole, the force of 
the preposition may be stated thus : it does not compel us to adopt 
either interpretation, but it is more accurate, more natural, and 
more in accordance with the usage of Scripture, when interpreted 
not in the sense of an immediate, but of a more remote reception. 
If we should probably conclude that the general facts of the Gos- 
pel history (e. g. those mentioned in 1 Cor. xv. 3-7) were not com- 
municated to St. Paul by direct revelation, we should have no 
reason to suppose an exception in regard to the facts of the insti- 
tution of the Lord's Supper; unless the language employed in 
regard to that subject obliged us to do so. Apparently that is not 
the case, the preposition used agreeing rather with the opposite 
opinion, and certainly not being that which would seem likely to 
have been chosen, if it had been the purpose of the writer to assert 
the exceptional nature of this particular communication. Thus 
the addition of anb too Kvpiov to napi\apov will only indicate the im- 
portance of the acts and words of the institution, as handed down 
by the known will, and (probably) by the express charge, of the 
Lord. 

In regard to the whole question of the sources of St. Paul's 
doctrine, it seems to me that his own expressions lead us to class 
them as follows : (1) the report of others, conveying to him the 
historical facts of the manifestation of Christ; (2) direct and defi- 
nite revelations from the Lord Jesus, ascertaining to him the main 
features of the doctrine which it was his special work to deliver; 
(3) a general inspiration or guidance of the Holy Ghost, present 
in his experience, in the workings of his own mind, and more 
particularly in his study of the Old Testament Scriptures. 

The last mentioned method of illumination is evidently of a pro- 






Lect. IV. notes. 249 

gressive character. In reference to this subject Ellicott's observa- 
tion, in his comment on Gal. i. 12, is fair and reasonable : — 

" It is a subject of continual discussion, whether the teaching of 
St. Paul was the result of one single illumination, or of progres- 
sive development. The most natural opinion would certainly seem 
to be this : that as, on the one hand, we may reverently presume that 
all the fundamental truths of the Gospel would be fully revealed to 
St. Paul, before he commenced preaching; so, on the other, it 
might have been ordained, that, in accordance with the laws of 
our spiritual nature, its deepest mysteries and profoundest harmo- 
nies should be seen and felt through the practical experiences of 
his apostolical labors." 

I would only wish to add to this statement of the case a distinct 
mention of that continuous ministration of the Old Testament 
Scriptures to his mind, which is perceptible in all his writings, 
and to which attention is called in Note XII. 

Note IX., p. 120. 

Every day we become more familiar with that view of the Apos- 
tolic writings, which distinguishes between the narrator and the 
commentator, assigning a commanding authority to the bare wit- 
ness of facts, of sayings of the Lord, and of revelations distinctly 
asserted, and denying such authority to the expositions of the doc- 
trine involved in those facts, sayings, and revelations. In the one 
department of their work they are true witnesses, delivering to us 
the words of God. In the other they are fallible men, theorizing 
or theologizing under the mingled advantages and disadvantages 
which might result from their historical position. This bisection 
(if I may use the word) of the testimony of our appointed teach- 
ers, leaves us the divine foundations of a theology, but sweeps 
away the divine theology itself, which they were laid to support. 
We are at full liberty to raise other edifices in its stead, or, which 
will be better still, we may leave the materials unused and the 
ground unoccupied. The intimations of this view of the inspired 
writings are often hurtful, only because they are disguised ; the 
theory not being avowed, while the language appropriate to it is 
used. It will be well to keep the theory itself distinctly in sight, 



250 NOTES. Lect. IV. 

as it will explain the meaning and expose the tendency of many 
arguments and insinuations "which might else make injurious im- 
pressions on unestablished faith. Perhaps this theory cannot be 
better exhibited than in the following words of one of its leading 
advocates : — 

"As to what especially concerns the religious doctrines con- 
tained in the Bible, it is clear, from the very nature of the case, thai 
we are only bound to notice those doctrines which can be directly 
referred to inspiration. We therefore need pay no regard to those 
doctrines which lay no claim to be considered as inspired, and do 
not come before DS as forming part of a Divine revelation. Such, 
for instance, are the doctrines of the Mosaic cosmogony, the sim- 
ple historical narratives in both the Testaments, &c. Above all, 
those parts of the Bible which cannot be directly derived from in- 
spiration, consequently everything in the writings of the prophets 
(and. taking the word in a wide sense, of the apostles also) which 
is in any degree of a a scientific character, the result of reflection, 
and in any sense whatever the work of science, true and impor- 
tant as it may be, these, one and all. have not a binding authority 
upon us. But further. " ; / dt <•< lopnu nts of doctrine, which were in 
point of fact the commencement of a theology, have a large margin 
belonging to them. Take, for instance, the theological theories and 
peculi :' Paul and John, although in another regard they 

have an especial value for us, yet per se they are not revelation. 
Their authors worked them out with much painful thought, and 
their thought we also truly regard, when striving like them to 
master the subject ; yet they never claim for their theological de- 
ductions a binding authority upon others. On the other hand, all 
the direct declarations in Holy Scripture about our salvation, all the 
great historical facts of the great drama of revelation, especially 
the contents of the Gospels, these have all a binding authority upon 
us. These are the points on which Paul and John theologize. 

" It is this assertion of the comparative authority of the Holy 
Scriptures which is the only means of securing them from forced 
and violent interpretations." l It would be more true to say — of 
exposing them to such interpretations. 

l R. Rothe, in an article in Studitn und KritiJcen, 1860. 



Lect. IV. NOTES. 251 



Note X., p. 126. 

"If such a spirit did not dwell in the Church, the Bible would 
not be inspired ; for the Bible is, before all things, the written voice 
of the congregation. Bold as such a theory of inspiration may 
sound, it was the earliest creed of the Church, and it is the only 
one to which the facts of Scripture answer. The Sacred Writers 
acknowledge themselves men of like passions with ourselves, 
and we are promised illumiuation from the Spirit which dwelt in 
them." 1 

These words of Dr. Williams give a distinct statement of a view 
of the Holy Scriptures, which is often presented in more ambigu- 
ous language. The Bible is the voice of the congregation, in the 
sense of being a voice adopted by the congregation, as the expres- 
sion of its mind forever; and assertions may be made concerning 
the' Scriptures, which are true in this sense, while they are false in 
the sense which they are meant to bear : but this sense is here 
disclaimed by the words "before all things," which deny that the 
Scriptures have any character antecedent to this. This denial flatly 
contradicts the real voice of the congregation, which has always 
acknowledged and adopted the Scriptures, in the character of a 
voice w r hich came to it, not in that of a voice which proceeded 
from it. Nothing is more certain than that the Church has always 
considered and avowed, that she was called into existence by the 
Apostolic agency : and that the teaching of the Apostles was the 
cause and not the product of her faith. It is no less certain, that 
she has from the first acknowledged and received the canonical 
books, as being themselves a part, the written part, of that Apos- 
tolic teaching, that is to say, as being the permanent form of the 
word by which her faith was first created. 

This acknowledgment of the Catholic Church, concerning her 
own origin and the relation of the Scriptures to it, does in fact 
dispose of the questions which we often hear debated — whether 
the Church is before the Bible, or the Bible before the Church — 
whether the New Testament Scriptures stand upon Christianity, or 

1 Essays and Reviews, p. 78. 



252 NOTES. Lect. IV. 

Christianity upon the New Testament Scriptures. It is certain 
that the Church existed before the Bible, and Christianity before 
the New Testament Scriptures ; but it is also certain that the 
Church and Christianity derived their own existence from the word 
which those Scriptures contain. The word was antecedent to the 
existence of the Church, as the cause is to the effect; the writing 
of that word, and its reception when written, were subsequent to 
the formation of the Church, but the writing only made permanent 
for future time the word by which the Church had been created; 
and the reception of the writings only recognized them as the same 
word in its form of permanence. Thus, while the Church is chrono- 
logically before the Bible, the Bible is potentially before the Church; 
since the written word, which is the ground of faith to later genera- 
tions of Christians, is one in origin, authority, and substance with 
the oral word, which was tin- ground of faith to the first genera- 
tion of Christians. Any one who pleases may deny this unity of 
the writ tin ami the oral word. I only observe, that, if he does so, 
he contradicts the '• voice of the congregation." 

It may further be said, that there is a sense in which some of 
the New Testament Scriptures are. as writings, anterior to Chris- 
tianity, not only potentially but chronologically. If the ministry 
of St. Paul was divinely ordained, and used, to develop Christian 
doctrine, then that ministry was anterior to the full development 
of Christianity. But his Epistles were part of his ministry, as 
much a part of it as his spoken word : may we not say a more im- 
portant part, as being, by their character of writing, more deliber- 
ate -and thorough. It follows that his Epistles are, as really as 
his oral teaching, chronologically anterior to Christianity as a 
perfected system. Christianity therefore stands upon the New 
Testament Scriptures; not the New Testament Scriptures upon 
Christianity. 



LECT. YI. NOTES. 253 

LECTURE VI. 

Note XI., p. 156. 

" Epistolicarn formam prse libris V. T. habent Scripta N. T. et 
in his non solum Pauli, Petri, Jacobi, Judae, sed etiam uterque 
Lucae, et onines Johannis libri. Plus etiam est, quod ipse Dominus 
Jesus Cliristus suo nomine septem epistolas dedit, Johannis manu, 
Apoc. ii. 3, ac tota Apocalypsis instar est epistolas ab Ipso datae. 
Non ad servos, sed ad liberos, eosque emancipatos potissimum, 
epistolae mitti sunt solitae : epistolicumque scribendi genus prae 
quovis alio accommodatum est ad regnum Dei quam latissime 
propagandum, et ad animas quam locupletissime aediflcandas. 
Plus in hoc quoque genere unus laboravit Paulus quam ceteri 
omnes." 1 

Note XII., p. 171. 

The principle intimated in the text is that the "perfection"* of 
Christian doctrine was attained by the reading of the Old Testa- 
ment in the light of the (elementary) knowledge of Christ; in 
other words, that the complete exposition of the Gospel was the 
result of a combination of the facts and the words of the old dis- 
pensation with the facts and the words of the new, a combination 
effected in the minds of the Apostles under the teaching of the 
Holy Ghost, who thus brought to light the meaning and the scope 
of his own earlier inspirations, preserved in the Law and the 
Prophets. This method of divine teaching is exhibited in action, 
and exemplified at length, in the Epistles to the Eomans and to the 
Hebrews. It does in fact constitute and create those two precious 
writings ; which, while they are arguments addressed to others, 
appear to be also records of the course of thought and formation 
of opinion in the minds of the writers themselves. They use for 
the education of other minds the same means and materials which 
the Holy Ghost had first prepared, and then used, for the educa- 
tion of their own. 



l Bengelii, Gnomon, in Rom. i. 1. 2 reAeionjs. 

22 



254 NOTES. Lect. VI. 

E. g. The mind of St. Paul having received the fundamental 
principle of justification by grace through faith in Christ, seems 
to have defined and systematized his doctrine on that subject, by 
reflection on his own experience of what the Law could do and of 
what it could not do, on the principle enunciated by Habakkuk, 
that "the just shall live by his faith," on the fact that Abraham, 
"being yet uncircumcised, believed God, and it was counted unto 
him for righteousness," on David's description of " the man to 
whom the Lord impntcth righteousness without works," &c, &c. 
The writer to the Hebrews, again, in his penetrating and profound 
treatment of a multitude of Old Testament texts and of the whole 
system of the first covenant, not only iustructs the disciples whom 
he addresses, but also incidentally shows in what way their 
teachers had themselves been taught, namely, by means of the 
former Scriptures, read in connection with the Gospel facts, and 
under the teaching of the Holy Ghost. 

I do not mean that precisely the same passages which they 
think fittest for Instructing others had been effectual to their own 
enlightenment, but that they had gained their own perfect light 
from these and others like them, and that they had themselves 
been taught through the same medium which they employ. St. 
Paul's manner of using the Old Testament seems continually to 
imply his own personal obligations to it. 

Some may think that this view of the manner in which the truth 
was cleared to the minds of its first teachers is inconsistent with, 
or at least derogatory to, their inspiration; since it implies the 
processes of study, reflection, comparison, deduction, a gradual 
increase in the fulness and proportions of their knowledge, and a 
progress of doctrine in their own minds. Certainly it implies all 
this, and that is a reason not against, but for its truth ; for the 
Apostolic writings appear to bear witness to such processes and 
such progress in the minds of their authors. Had it been the 
purpose of these Lectures to consider the Progress of Doctrine in 
this sense, the view taken of it would have been in accordance 
with the observation of Bengel, that when the Pauline discourses 
and writings are placed in chronological order, "a spiritual 



Lect. VI. NOTES. 255 

growth of the Apostle is perceived." 1 Such a view has no 
kindred with that which has been hazarded by Professor 
Jowett and others, and which treats the later teaching, not as an 
expansion, but as a reversal of the earlier ; not as a more full and 
definite, but as an absolutely different doctrine. The doctrine 
was always one, its full development being implied in its first 
elements, but, like any other large system of thought, taking time 
to unfold itself, first in the minds of the teachers, and then in the 
Church which they taught. The instrument used for this purpose 
was the Scriptures of the Old Testament. It was so from the 
very first. When their Lord taught them personally after his 
resurrection it was through this medium. " He expounded unto 
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself; " " Then 
opened he their understandings, that they might understand the 
Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it 
behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, 
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
his name among all nations." (Luke xxiv. 27, 45-47.) It is scarcely 
less evident that the same method was pursued in their subsequent 
illumination by the Holy Ghost, and that the light which they 
enjoyed was a light which was reflected from the Scriptures. 
That which the Lord, before his departure, did by word of mouth, 
is precisely that which, after his departure, he did by the Holy 
Ghost; "Then opened he their understandings that they might 
understand the Scriptures." 

There is nothing in this view of the case derogatory to the ful- 
ness of their inspiration, for the inspiration in which we believe 
is not one which in its general action supersedes the natural pro- 
cesses of the mind, but one which mingles itself with them, and 
insures the truth of their results. In making the former Scriptures 
the means of enlightening the authors of the later Scriptures, the 
Holy Spirit established the continuity of his own teaching, and 
built the Church "upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
Prophets," amalgamating the two foundations into one. It is 
from his own experience that St. Paul says to Timothy (albeit not 

1 " Incrementum Apostoli spirituale cogaoscitur." — Gnomon, Rom. i. 1. 



256 NOTES. Lect. VI. 

impowered by the Apostolic inspiration), "The Holy Scriptures 
(of the Old Testament) are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
(<re o-otfucrai els o-wnipiap) through faith which is in Jesus Christ." (2 
Tim. iii. 15.) The force of the expression lies in the o-o<fuW. The 
Gospel Timothy has already received; the faith in Christ Jesus he 
already has; and therefore he is actually in possession of the 
salvation: but the wisdom (o-o^a) appertaining to this salvation he 
is to seek by means of the Scriptures (ra Swd/itfa o-o^hW). This 
ao4>ia corresponds to the reAaoTTj? (of doctrine) spoken of in 1 Kb. 
vi. l, which is there Illustrated by the exquisite example of 
spiritual exegesis, on the passag "Thou art a priesl forever after 
the <>rder of Melchizedek." Elsewhere, again, the Apostle adverts 
to this character of his doctrine, "Howbeit we speak wisdom 
among them thai arc perfect" (oo<t>i.*v «»< to:? rcAmo*, i Cor. ii. G); 
and there the method of Us exposition Is described bj the 
remarkable expression (of somewhat doubtful meaning), »v ^qoktoU 

vvtvpaTos ayiov nvtVfjLaTiKols nytvpariica. avyKpiioi-Tts (\cV. luj. It Se< 

me that the Interpretation of these word- [s best derived from the 
rerywhere apparent in I namely, his 

habit of working out all the more recondite and (if l may u-<- the 
ntific parts of the Evangelical doctrine by the aid of 
the Old T i of which 

were, we know, In his sight w«»fMMrurf. Dean Alford's objection to 
this interpretation, as given by CI.:. Is founded upon his 

treatment of the word w*ypumm t a> if it meant barely to prove or 
interpret. I think that ChrySOStom'S illustrations, in the p 

__ - : meaning than this; but even the 

latter of these words, taken In Its full sense, would be a more 

adequate and exact rendering than that which is adopted in its 
plaee. "putting together spirituals with spiritual-." i. 
spirit* I » spiritual things. The <rvyK Pi yeu> will more properly 

represent a process of thought and judgment than a mere 

. it does in (act most aptly represent that process which 
we actually see in the Epistles, in which the m-ev^arLKa of the old 
covenant are combined with those of the new in order to establish 
and elucidate the doctrine which is delivered. The appropriation 
of the Old Testament words to express the New Testament doc- 



Lect. VI. notes. 257 

trines is a part of this elucidation : e. g. the application of the old 
terms of sacrifice and lustration, to describe the nature of the 
death and the effect of the blood of Christ. 

Note XIII. , p. 172. 

"As Luther complained of the Epistle of James, that it was not 
occupied with Christ, so in more recent times an inclination has 
been exhibited to regard James, as he appears to us in his Epistle, 
as the representative of the faith of the earliest Christians ; and 
hence it has been deduced that the Ebionitic doctrine was the 
primitive; a conclusion in every respect over-precipitate! For, 
first, the design of James is such, that it does not fall to him to set 
forth in order the faith and its contents, but to maintain the irians 
rather according to its ethical significancy, and to contend against 
all antinomianism. The wUrns he pre-supposes ; he does not seek 
to plant it for the first time ; and hence it is incompetent, nay, 
unjust to him, to treat his Epistle as if he began with the beginning 
and meant to set forth the fundamental principles of Christianity, 
which as yet were not in dispute. But, secondly, it would be still 
more hazardous from this short Epistle — which, according to its 
avowed design, aims to unfold the ethical and not the dogmatical 
aspect of Christian truth — to form an estimate of James uni- 
versally ; of whom we have no right, since in other respects he is 
at one with the synoptic tradition, to assume that in respect to 
Christological ideas he stands opposed to it. Thirdly, utterly un- 
true is the assumption that James is to be viewed as the repre- 
sentative of the faith of the earliest Christianity. Eather is his 
letter, with its polemic against a one-sided faith, an evidence that 
there was another tendency in the Church, which laid chief stress 
on faith, not in its ethical purifying power, but viewed principally 
as an object of knowledge, ao<f>i* ; consequently, more in respect 
of its dogmatic import, and that in a fruitless way, and which held 
participation in Christianity in this sense for justifying. Over 
against this theoretical faith he places that which is practical. 
Still more weighty is what we would adduce fourthly, viz., that 
it cannot be denied that to the individuality of James the ethical 



258 NOTES. Lect. VI. 

was the most congenial, and hence drew him to give especial effect 
to the refutation of this false tendency." l 

Dorner goes on to show that the ethic of St. James is a 
Christian ethic, and then to point out the actual Christological 
features of the Epistle. The result is, " that James had before him 
the Christian presupposition in anthropological and soteriological 
form" — a sufficiently alarming sentence, which, however, I print 
in italics, because it gives the precise point to which I have wished 
to speak in the text, namely, that a considerate examination of 
the Epistle shows, that the whole doctrine of the manifestation of 
Christ in the flesh, and of the mystery of redemption and salva- 
tion, is presupposed as already known and accepted both by the 
writer and by those to wle.in lie writes. It is this prc-suppositimi 
which justifies the place which is assigned to the Epistle in the 
course of divine instruction. 

1 Dorner, on the Terson of Christ, Introduction, pp. 62, 63. 




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:. i r. ii. .w a i: i » Mad om, i» i>., late 

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6ouIlt antr Lincoln's publications. 



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KITTO'S POPVLAB CYCLOPAEDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERA- 
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